StarFox 3: Reflections Of Krystal
by Kit-Karamak
Summary: The one that started it all. I wrote this years ago, people liked it, so I kept rolling with it. I've changed the format of the series over time but people really enjoyed a story about Krystal so... I hope you do, too!
1. Newly edited Chapter 1

New A/N: January 10th, 2010. I started on this story and posted it August 8th, 2005 and finished it October 19th of 2005. I was very happy with this story when I first wrote it but going back and re-reading it... not so much. I'm in the middle of the 6th installation of this series - Reflections of Marcus McCloud. I only write stories that are requested by readers. One about Marcus was requested, as was the sequel. The only two stories I wrote that were not by request... let's see, THIS ONE obviously... and Reflections of Peppy. Why? Because it helps with writing the back-story. In this series, a "REFLECTION" is the name Krystal's people gave to the psychic vibrations her race felt in their frontal lobe. They call it such because they see things the way we look into a mirror. It's two-dimensional images like one would see on a flat glassy surface. I call the Peppy story a "reflections" story as well but there are no telepathic people in it. Instead, I change the story format and start each chapter with him as an old man, reflecting on his past. Okay. for those of you who are fans of this series, I really appreciate you taking the time to read my material. I plan to make this story a little longer, too. There will be a few small sections of stuff that I'll remove but mostly I'm editing this story to fix things and add stuff. Don't worry even though there are sections I dislike I'm not changing anything major. Falco still fights his old rival gang, Krystal still rescues Fox on Meteo, Star Wolf still abducts the Prime Minister to keep him from getting killed.

Okay! I'll do my best NOT to simply erase and re-write this story. It would come out very different if I did and I wouldn't write entire paragraphs of passive-tense narrative if I re-wrote it... but it would be very time consuming and this story will be five years old this year. I like looking back and seeing how I've progressed over the last half-decade. If I change EVERYTHING I won't have that anymore. So yeah... I'm just going to do some editorial and add a little stuff. I'll TRY to write in my old writing style to keep this story fluid but... yeah. Stuff. Okay, I'll shut up now - happy reading.

My current email address is KitKaramakATgmailDOTcom. Feel free to say hi! Feel free to re-review this story if you like. If you've already reviewed a chapter and it won't let you post again, you can always log out and post an anonymous review and write in your name and email address so I can thank you for your review as I do with EVERY review I receive. THANKS AGAIN FOR STOPPING THROUGH!!

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**REFLECTIONS OF KRYSTAL**

By:_ Kit Karamak_

Chapter -1- _The day after the 'Adventure'_.

**Krystal paused. She needed a moment to reflect** on all that had happened over the last few days. With her damaged shuttle sitting on the flight deck of 'GreatFox,' her search for answers on Cerinia would be placed on the back burner for a while. She remembering landing on Sauria when her mind sensed a call of distress and during that escapade, her shuttle was damaged and lost power.

It barely managed to break orbit of the Dinosaur planet that her new friends called 'Sauria'. She was lucky to have caught up with GreatFox before its departure from the area and now she was at their mercy for help. It was odd, really. The red furred vulpine pilot named Fox McCloud had helped her but she didn't yet trust him. She pondered the red-furred man with the masculine voice. She'd never seen red fur before. It was exotic by comparison to the sapphire hue of her fur coat but their bodily similarities were otherwise astonishing. Standing in the guest quarters on the dreadnought known as GreatFox, Krystal held her belongings in her paws.

Her flight suit was ripped across the side and burnt in the back. The threaded remains were worthless, crumbling in her palms. Damaged during the initial Sharpclaw attack, an aggressive tribe of upstanding dinosaurs, Krystal was forced to begin an alliance with the other prehistoric beasts on the planet. They helped her and she acted as a diplomat between two local tribes. In exchange for bringing peace to the Lightfoot raptors and a quadruped tribe known as the Thorntail tribe, Krystal was rewarded with trinkets. They provided her with cloth, seashells and even sandals that she was able to tailor to meet her needs. Even now, the day after meeting Fox McCloud and his friends, Krystal wore the scant outfit, giving her a tribal appearance. She wondered if they judged her by her appearance. Perhaps they thought her to be some troglodyte cave-woman? Nothing could be further from the truth. Her eyes moved to the weapon staff she owned. It was a technological marvel, hosting various computer-controlled programs designed for offensive and defensive applications.

She recalled that her side-tracked mission for answers seemed to coincide with occurrences on this planet, and the sooner she got to the bottom of things, the better off she felt her mission would be. Her heart ached in memory of her home, the planet of Cerinia. With its lone moon, Meredith, it was a beautiful world – a perfect balance of elegant urban structures that blended into lush fauna teaming with wildlife. Immaculately clean, technology made her home world pollution free and wonderfully simplistic in so many ways. Her eyes moistened at the memory of all she'd lost. The system's central star collapsed, destroying Cerinia. For all she knew at this time, she may very well have been the last of her race.

Krystal tried pushing her memories back to her time on Sauria to keep from dwelling on the loss of her family and her home. During her stay, she learned that the Sharpclaw tribe was starting a war with the other tribes. The one known as General Scales was receiving unknown technological help and, for the first time ever, was making headway against the rest of Sauria. Krystal vowed to stay and help. After about two and a half weeks on the planet, she'd integrated herself with the locals and became a valuable ally to the peaceful dinosaurs. Scales was growing more dangerous and she promised to find him and head to the source of the initial distress signal in a temple high in the clouds, known as Krazoa Palace.

She befriended a pterodactyl named "Kite" and disassembled a plasma blaster lens from her shuttle to use as a weapon when flying on Kite's back. She'd prepared herself to catch up with the airship, from which the planet's dictator ruled. It seemed like extraordinary technology when compared to the rest of the planet. However, regardless of the technology used by Scales, it seemed archaic when compared to the ancient rulers of the planet, who were now extinct. The 'Krazoa' had been dead for a million years according to the dinosaur tribes. Only a handful of their spirits remained, providing the essence of life to the planet in its current state. Her drifting mind wondered over the events that led to her capture. She lost her staff in a heavy thunderstorm while on Kite's back. General Scales' airship had attacked the two in the middle of the awful weather.

The front of the airship was fitted with a living, breathing bioweapon designed to look like a lizard. Using the blaster lens from her shuttle, she attacked the airship and disabled its propulsion systems. She managed to exhaust the battery supply although she was successful in slowing the airship. Krystal even boarded it and retrieved a key which came in handy later on at the Krazoa Palace. But it was on that airship that she met General Scales. The encounter was disconcerting – she learned he was quite the tyrant. He even through her over the side in an attempt to kill her. Lucky for her, Kite remained nearby and dove to catch her. From there, she headed to the source of the initial distress signal that led her to Sauria in the first place.

When she arrived at Krazoa Palace, the Earthwalker tribe's best warriors were strewn about the palace grounds. All of them were fatally injured and incapacitated. The Sharpclaw army had already left, leaving behind signs of their technology – fuel canisters and other such things. It was there that she met Doctor Andross Oikonny. He captured her and there she stayed for several days in virtual suspended animation. She remained there until she was rescued by Fox McCloud yesterday afternoon.

Krystal looked around the quarters of her guest room, finally coming to sit upon the floor, folding her legs and placing her hands together. The one downside of telepathy was that it required meditation to block out the jumbled thoughts of others so that she could hear herself think. Her soft sea-green eyes fluttered shut and she cleared her mind. She had so much to reflect on now that the ordeal was over. Her thoughts and memories ran together from her overactive mind, making sleep difficult. Again, the attack on Scales' airship ran through her mind.

She recalled that the skies opened up and a heavy summer rain soaked her fur. Thunder bellowed across the sky, lightning occasionally lancing out from the sea of clouds, causing a cacophony of turbulent weather. The cloud runner was afraid to fly in such conditions but the staff weapon she'd brought from her Cerinian shuttle had the ability to reverse a positron charge and neutralized electrons around her body. The shield was powerful even in the hands of an inexperienced user of the staff.

Essentially, to the person who was skilled in the use of her Cerinia-made tool, she could use it as the opposite of a lightning rod, to make herself less attractive to energy attacks. This would keep the two safe from lightning. She had left the pterodactyl behind, sliding across the water-drenched galleon of the airship. Her attempts at diplomacy failed miserably with the ship's captain, who she recognized as General Scales even before he announced his name to her. She shuddered a second time at the reoccurring memory.

Krystal owed her life to Kite who had stayed in the area to catch her when the tyrant threw her body over the side. She prayed that Kite was doing well back on Sauria. She recalled that her luck at the sacred walls of the Krazoa Palace was scarcely better. She ran into the man who had visited Cerinia only eight years ago. She remembered that he was dying and his escape pod crash-landed on her home world.

Eight years ago… it seemed like another lifetime. The first news of an alien visitor from another system, it was completely swallowed by the Cerinian media. He was some sort of overly evolved ape, tall and intelligent. He was saved by the natural healing abilities of Cerinia priests and doctors. The ape, calling himself Andross Oikonny, began to show the Governing body of Cerinia how to revolutionize their energy consumption and make advances in their _industrial_ technology. It was a technology that caused pollution but her people welcomed it at first because it provided energy beyond their wildest dreams.

Cerinians couldn't see into his mind. They vaguely knew of a neighboring alien race from a nearby system known as the Kew. Like the Kew, they couldn't read the thoughts of Andross. His mind was too clouded. Being the first alien that her people had come in contact with since the Kew she thought it was natural that Cerinians couldn't read the thoughts of his breed.

Rumors suggested that he had begun making a biological weapon on the system's sun, but he told the Cerinian media that it was a harmless science experiment; he told them he'd already created such a being on SOL, one of the two stars in his home system. The experiment was designed not only help the sun last _longer_, but to make solar power panels more efficient. He even went so far as to say that the being on their sun's surface was _necessary_ because the star was in poor shape – something Cerinia could not verify. She never determined if the rumors were true or if they were simply gossip, but the people of Cerinia quickly discovered that he was … for lack of a better world… evil.

Shortly before his expulsion, Andross designed an amplifier that used the exposed and innocent means of telepathy to _reprogram_ naïve, untrained members of the population. Krystal was shielded by her parents, both members of the senate. She was unable to verify Andross' intentions or even his actions from the sanctuary of the senate complex. Disaster happened. There was a small battle on her planet. It ended with Andross Oikonny being badly beaten. He was mortally wounded and the people of her home world put him back in his capsule and jettisoned it without delay. Most of the injuries he'd sustained from Lylat before arriving on Cerinia returned, leaving him on his near-deathbed.

Only a _year later_, the central star of her system burned out and went partially super nova. Cerinia turned cold, icing over in three days. Her people held a lottery for young scientists and qualified telepathists to board shuttles and either search for help or find answers. Krystal was one of the chosen people to leave Cerinia to find help because she was the daughter of senators, one of which was a retired scientific explorer. It was her father, Marcus, who once traveled to Kew to create diplomatic détente. Krystal took her father's shuttle, clothes and food, and a great deal of science gear. She was armed with her ship's plasma gun and a _proton utility defense weapon rod_, or PUDWR. It was given to her as a gift by Cerinia's oldest living being, a woman known only as The Oracle.

Most of the Cerinian explorers and scientists that were given the very same mission chose to start their journey for answers at the collapsed star. They traveled to the center of her doomed system. Krystal, on the other hand, had a different idea of where to begin. She wanted to follow the path of the escape pod that was banished from the system last year.

She had made it no further than the edge of her system, where other planets, due to a lack of gravity pull, lost their orbital patterns. In fact, two of the planets near the edge managed to collide. They caused a massive concussion, littering the system with asteroids. She decided to check in at the edge of her system's known boarder and relay her findings but there was no reply from Cerinia. An hour later, the brightest flash conceivable engulfed her system. Even though a polarized canopy, she had to look away.

Her ship's computer had logged an artificial intelligence hypothesis that the floating rock that was once their sun had either completely collapsed or the rumored bio-weapon on the darkened rock caused an implosion that devoured Cerinia, its moon, Meredith and, most likely, the small fleet of science ships.

Her journey turned into a pilgrimage, following the last known course of the banished Andross. She stopped by Kew and was relieved they took pity on her. They gave her food and supplies. She explained her experience with Andross Oikonny and, to he surprise, they pointed her in the direction of a system known as "Lylat". She plugged the coordinates into her navigation system and continued onward but lost his trail in the next system. At the outer edge of the Lylat System, she sensed the distress from Sauria She remembered her sensors showing that _every planet_ in Lylat had a life-supporting atmosphere in place. She chose to follow the distress pattern to Sauria, a veritable dinosaur planet. Once she was inside the Krazoa Palace, the unthinkable happened. She ran into Andross, personally.

She could remember snarling. She said something to the effect of, "...You!" before his massive paw swished forward and knocked her into a beam of spirit light. It came from where she had transported one of the Krazoa spirits to a statue on the wall. Krystal recalled the dizzying sensation of incredible ecstasy when the spirit left her body and became one with the statue. Behind the statue was a reverse polarity tractor beam. When Andross threw the still-dazed vixen into the beam, it pushed her back with tremendous force. She was thrown through the liquid-like force field at the opposite end of the corridor then elevated by another mechanism up to the top of the palace. She was placed inside of a crystal prism that resembled a prison.

The worst happened. The grotesque man known as Andross Oikonny was using this machine to steal energy that made up her physical body on the atomic level. He was very slowly killing her to save his own life. But a factor that the ape never accounted for became her benefactor. The Krazoa spirits still had their consciousness, and with each one that eventually joined the one she'd released, they sustained her for as long as they could hold out.

It was only a few days inside that glassy prison before she was freed. Her metabolism was slowed to a near state of hibernation. Then, as of yesterday, the crystal chamber around her dissolved. She wasn't even ready for it. She could remember squinting through the glass at an orange-furred being that had been coming to visit her every so often. Suddenly the crystalline structure vanished and she began to fall back towards the Krazoa Palace. Surely such a plummet would kill her from that height.

She reached out, groping for something to hold to stop her fall. That's when her paws wrapped around the end of her staff that she'd sworn she had lost. Her head lifted and her eyes met an orange visage… one of the most incredibly wonderful images she'd laid her eyes on in ages: he was her hero, her savior. His name was Fox McCloud. The memory brought a smile to Krystal's face.

He was gruff and strong, hoisting her up onto the ledge, which was still host to heavy rainfall. Krystal reflected, in her meditative state, what transpired on the roof of the palace. She had snatched her staff back and the two nearly broke into an argument over it. It was cute on his part, very boyish.

She ignored his grousing and began a worthless attack on the stone-like ship that she originally thought was part of the Krazoa palace. It turned out to be an offensive weapon pod built by that arrogant fool, Andross Oikonny. The other being, the vulpine pilot named Fox, dashed off. He had a fighter resting on the roof of the Palace. He quickly boarded the machine he called 'Arwing.'

Above her, the Krazoa shaped head ascended into orbit, causing a flashy, unstable gravity ring to open. The fighter quickly pursued the giant weapon pod. She watched from the roof of the Krazoa Palace, built upon one of the planet's highest mountaintops. Krystal recalled placing the staff in her harness and watching as the tiny dot – the vulpine's fighter – attacked and ultimately destroyed the escaping Andross.

She sent for Kite, using an astral projection of her telepathic mind and begged for his assistance in returning her to her ship, miles from the foothills of the Palace, itself. She remembered feeling clever for powering it with the power gems that grew on plants around Sauria.

Now, one day later, she found herself on board GreatFox with her damaged ship now exhausted and powerless. Once more, Krystal looked around the guest bedroom that was lent to her. It would now become her temporary home. In her state of meditation, she prayed to the Creator to give her an answer to her plight. She was the last of her people that she was aware of… her deepest concern was that she, like Cerinia, had no future.

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Original A/N:

I decided to write a little short story about what really happened to Krystal after "ADVENTURES", and who she was as a woman.

Disclaimer: StarFox is by Nintendo. Nintendo is neat. The characters ain't mine. They ain't yours. This story doesn't pay me, and I can't copyright it, so if you steal it and repost it, what am I going to do? Nothing! So I don't care if you steal it, it's just a posted bunch of words for entertainment purposes! YAY! Oh, and if you do, at least be nice enough to fix all the grammar and spelling mistakes! xD

-Ken Weaver

Something more legal sounding:

This story is used for entertainment purposes only; you may not resell or redistribute this story without the expressed permission of the author and a license from Nintendo, with whom all characters are places do belong. The intellectual property of all objects, characters and places mentioned are part of the StarFox Franchise which are all Trademarked and are copy-write, Nintendo. There, that's a little more legal sounding, I guess. Wee.


	2. Newly edited Chapter 2

New A/N: _Hey gang. Still updating this story. Sorry I don't have the time to make it happen all at once. This story is enormously OLD. I really like a lot of stuff from it but it needs way more in order to better tie into my many sequels. Thanks again for reading; I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my material. You're way awesome. Again, this is NOT A REWRITE… it's an editorial touchup… a fresh coat of paint overtop of a very aged and weather-beaten fence. Some of the things I've changed in this chapter include a few additions. In the original chapter 3 for this story, Fox buys Krystal the emerald tiara. Later, I realized what the tiara might have meant to her character. So I came up with a reason for there being two – the one she wears in ADVENTURES, gold pearls and a ruby… then to juxtapose it with the platinum one with the emerald that she wears in ASSAULT. I'll remove the scene where Fox buys the second one for her when I get to updating Chapter 3. I add where she gets the second one from at the beginning of THIS chapter. I also removed TONS of unnecessary punctuation marks, got rid of the capital letters following quotations and added a part where Fox removes a poster while on the bridge. If you have a sharp eye, you've seen that sexy vixen poster on the bridge during StarFox Adventures. I thought it would be amusing to have Fox get embarrassed about it now that there's a female onboard (especially since it is one that he happens to like.) Finally, I added where Krystal recognizes Fox from the dream that I wrote in the beginning of Reflections of Fox. Thanks again for reading!

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Chapter-2- "_Changes and Adaptation_"

**Krystal swallowed hard**. Her paws trembled and her heart pounded. She was sitting on the floor in front of her luggage. It was the first time since leaving Sauria – she'd not seen some of these belongings since starting on her trip for answers. What she'd found at the bottom of the suitcase caused her stomach to drop.

With all the other affects pulled from the container, there was only one object left. She reached inside and reverently closed her paws around the item, curious as to how it got there. Her racing heart was like a hammer on cloth, but it thundered in her ears. Her nose went dry, her ears lowered and her eyes began to moisten. She lifted her mother's royal tiara from the container. Tears streamed down her azure cheeks.

Krystal stared at the fuzzy object through a glistening watery gaze. She brought her left paw up and removed the ruby tiara and held them side-by-side. The one she wore was gold with a string of pearls and a ruby on the headdress. The other one was far more elegant. It was a platinum piece with a glowing emerald on the headdress. She'd never seen her mother without it. The loss she felt in her heart was unbearable. Krystal stood up, walked across the room and placed both on a dresser, side by side. She removed her bracers and put them aside then lowered herself to the floor and wept. Half an hour passed and she continued to cry until her tears ran dry.

Krystal walked to the private bathroom and washed her face then gazed into a mirror. She stared at herself long and hard – it was the first time in quite a while she'd not worn her circlet. She took a moment to compose herself then walked back out to where the two diadems sat on a dresser. They both had a dichroic headbands but the one with the platinum headdress and glowing emerald had pulchritudinous luster when compared to the one with the golden pearls and the ruby insert. She reached into the large shirt that Fox had given to her, withdrew a necklace and took it off then placed it with the rest.

To calm herself, she settled on the floor and took several deep breaths. Her eyes shut and she began to meditate. She willed her body to relax and began to focus on all that she'd heard about this sector in the last day.

There was a great deal to learn about this system. Venom was the largest and first planet from the central star, Lylat. Eladard, the size of a large moon, was an industrial capital and a leader in the medical technology revolution. It was covered with urban concrete. Fortuna came next then the ever-wonderful fourth planet, Corneria. Following that was another fairly populated planet, which consisted of military outposts, called Katina. There were two water-covered planets, Aquas and Zoness. There was a dusty planet, Macbeth, a desert planet known as Titania, a frozen planet known as Fichina and another outpost planet, known as Papetoon. Beyond that was a fiery planet, much like an orbiting star, SOLAR. Finally came the lush, jungle covered planet, known as Sauria.

The system seemed far more complex than where she'd come from. Lylat boasted deep-space anomalies and letter-shaped gaseous nebulas. What was more amazing was how civilized the populations of these planets were, and that they had a federation alliance with the neighboring planets. Krystal found their lexicon easy to pronounce, using her natural telepathy to speak their tongue as if she, herself, was native to the system.

It had been two days onboard the GreatFox and she found herself borrowing oversized clothing from Fox. He was the only person on the ship that was close to her build. The door to her quarters swished open and he stood in the doorway, timid from his nerves. She could tell it was because she was a girl; she found it to be an odd reason. His most attractive quality was his mind. After all, she knew he _had_ to be pure of heart in order for the Krazoa to allow him to finish the tests she began on while visiting Sauria.

"Hey," he said softly, tapping his paw against the doorframe. "You're decent right?" he asked, trying to be ever polite.

"I am, please. Come inside," she bade. Krystal glanced up from her mid-afternoon's meditation session. She was trying her best to quickly adapt to the time frame aboard GreatFox. At night, they kept the ship's interior lighting dim to simulate the feel of evening. During the day, the computer brightened the ambient illumination to keep the crew acclimated to the day schedule of the Capital City of the system's fourth planet.

Krystal looked him over with an endearing smile. She'd finally come to recognize his face and pondered where she'd seen it before now. She now knew for sure that she had met him somewhere before but couldn't place it… there was just something so familiar about his eyes and his smile.

Fox stepped within the guest room and was dressed differently than usual. Normally, he wore what seemed like comfortable pants, a shirt, a vest, a red scarf and sometimes a silver jacket. Today, he wore something that seemed less casual. She'd never seen the fashion style before; it wasn't anything like Cerinia.

The dashing vulpine was clad in black pants, a black jacket with tailored round objects at the sleeves, and a white shirt with little round fastenings up the front. The strange look was completed by a piece of cloth knotted at his neck. The horizontal fabric hung to just above the buckle of his belt. His thoughts betrayed him; he was actually worried that the cloth looked a certain way.

She allowed herself to probe further into his mind. Cornerians called the fabric a 'tie' and she'd only seen such a thing on one other man who went by the name of Darius Tyger Vai. Her thoughts returned to McCloud. She smiled softly, standing up in the dimly illuminated living room. Fox reached for a switch on the wall and little square shaped tiles on the wall and ceiling began to brighten. Their incandescence filled the room with a soft glow.

The electric lighting on her world was less fancy. Back on Cerinia, lights were occasionally recessed into ceilings but never built into the walls. Again, their technology was amusing to her. Both races were advanced, but it seemed that the people of Lylat invested their technology into making things sleek and stylish. From lighting panels, touch screen shower controls, fist-sized blaster weapons and scores of creature comforts, all the way to handheld music devices, multimedia enabled communicators and photographic capable features for nearly everything… their cultures differed greatly.

The thing that really got to her the most wasn't the technology or the fashion or even the food. It was Fox McCloud. She lowered her gaze then lifted it again, looking over his face. It was then she realized why she recognized him. A decade ago Krystal was like many other Cerinian girls – she began having telepathic dreams with her future mate. The problem was, Krystal's childhood dreams were never of a man on Cerinia.

She studied him and his facial structure. She licked her lips somewhat and smiled in realization of that recognition… She sensed he didn't recognize her but wondered if he'd had these dreams as well. (_Reflections of Fox McCloud, chapter 1_) She wanted to ask him but she didn't want him to think she was crazy, either. Krystal blinked… usually she was open on any subject because every member of her race already knew what was on her mind. But she knew he wasn't telepathic and, for the first time she could recall, she was concerned about how she might be perceived, simply because telepathy wasn't a factor… What if he thought she was silly for bringing up something like dreams? She wondered if he would judge her in some way.

Fox's voice broke her out of her state of reverie. "We're dry-docking above Corneria for repairs to GreatFox. I was going to pick up the contract documents from General Pepper for our work on Sauria and show you around if you're up to it," he told her.

"I would love to accompany you," she replied with a soft smile. The sweat pants he lent to her adorned her frame loosely, the waistband somewhat diagonally clinging to those feminine hips. Just the sight of her caused his heart to quicken.

Having recently learned of her telepathy, she noted that he was attempting not to rake his gaze over her figure. His T-shirt, which had markings across the front and back, had short sleeves but because of her small frame, they stopped just above her wrists. Fox had broad shoulders that would have easily filled out the shirt. Conversely, she found herself swimming in the fabric. "Out of curiosity, Fox, what does it say on this shirt you've lent me?"

"It's a jersey. They're numbers – it's a seven and a three. That was my number when I played sports in the academy," said McCloud, standing just a foot or two inside the doorway. To her, it was amusing that he should be so shy. She couldn't understand why.

On her world, everyone's thoughts were shared with the community. There was nothing to hide. Cerinians had no reason to be shy because everyone could be himself or herself since the community already knew everything about everyone else. This natural personality trait made her seem confident and self assured, but not quite egotistical. Ego… that was a trait the _blue avian_ seemed to have.

In the last two days, everyone had been spending a great amount of time with the bird named Falco. She learned that he had apparently spent a few years away from his friends here on the ship. The vixen recalled breakfast – she politely scolded Mister Lombardi for being selfish with his ego and to the surprise of the crew he actually appeared apologetic to Krystal's commentary. On two occasions, Peppy Hare referred to her as the 'den mother'. Ironically, she was the youngest person onboard.

Krystal looked down at the jersey that hung loose on her shoulders. The large collar stopped at the swell of her chest and she noticed Fox's eyes straying. The little vixen smiled inwardly. She thought about clearing her throat but opted against it for now. After all, she liked feeling wanted.

She came to realize that in this civilization the two genders put a great deal of emphasis on the differences between male and female. Cornerian men acted differently around a woman than they did around other men. She was quick to capitalize on this idea, reminding the boys that she was a lady. Twice thusfar, she told the crew that they needed to mind their 'boyish manners' thereby giving her a sense of feminine control. Not that she was controlling but they appeared to lack class. However, it was starting to become obvious that they wanted to grow beyond their bachelorhood immaturity. They were simply not used to having a woman aboard. This new experience and seeing men differently than she'd seen in the past was adorable.

Fox McCloud had a very general alluring trait about himself beyond his pure hearted nature. His dashing and attractive qualities outweighed the men on Cerinia in her opinion. There was a mystery about him… of who he was and the thoughts and feelings he kept locked away in his heart. The enigma of his soul and his private emotions made her secretly interested in him.

Fox, standing before her now, stepped back into the hallway and motioned for her to follow. She touched the panel on the wall, passing through the doorway, and turned out the lights to her room. The hallway was brightly illuminated and her pupils shrank. Krystal's eyes adjusted to the luminescent bulkheads. Drab, gray and metallic in a lifeless sort of way; the otherwise well-lit corridors of metal served as home to these adventurers. However, the ship needed a woman's touch.

"So what is it that you and your mates do for a living?" She asked. Fox seemed to feel a little awkward at calling his group, 'mates', so she reworded the question. "Your... wing mates? 'Teammates' is it?"

"Well, yes," Fox replied with a nervous chuckle. "Wing mates, teammates. We usually use the term 'mate', just mate by itself, as a term of endearment. It's what we refer to as our significant other."

"Aren't all your friends significant?" she asked as the two walked down the plain, gray corridor.

"N-... er, I mean, yes they are. But I mean," Fox trailed off.

She scanned his mind yet again then quirked her brows somewhat. "Fox, you mean 'mate' is a term to describe a companion of love?" Her walk caught his attention. The way she sashayed her hips, her delicate frame bouncing with each step, confidant and spirited. She noticed his straying eyes again. Next, she noticed his straying _mind_. "Ahem," she said softly, musing over his hormones. Again, he blushed. It was cute. Such reactions were foreign to her race.

"Yes, that's what I mean. Like a spouse. You know what that is, right?" he asked, curious if Cerinia celebrated marriage.

She took a moment to probe his thoughts and smiled at the definition she found within his mind. "Someone with whom you've exchanged vows, to stand as your lifelong partner of love, declared by a union known as matrimony?" All right, so she dressed it up and grinned. It made him feel nervous again, which amused her to no end. "Why, Fox, I've only known you for two days and already you're bringing up the topic of wedlock?" Her words caused him to freeze. She gingerly placed her paw at the small of his back and guided him forward. "I jest, Fox. It was said in humor."

"Yeah, I uh…" He swallowed back his nervousness then changed the subject with a forced smile. "So, I was thinking, maybe we could take you shopping and find you a tailor? Something for fashion?" Fox added. After a momentary pause, he continued, "You know… something of the latest trend. Well, unless you have your own ideas, of course. Maybe I could show you how women go about getting their appearance together on Corneria?"

"Hmm, I've never experimented with the issue of my vanity before," she said playfully. Krystal then tilted her head and quipped, "I see the men from this system, at least the one's I've met thus far, don't seem to care about their own vanity. Disheveled T-shirts and ruffled fur. A lady does enjoy a well groomed man's appearance, you know." She grinned again. She could sense that Fox was already making plans to get a trim, a haircut and brush his fur next time he had the chance. Again, she felt like she had a playful tinge of power over him, but the power of a woman was something she would have to learn to wield properly first. All these fresh new sensations enthralled her.

"So, are you ready to go now? I mean, you're not wearing all your jewelry pieces you usually wear," Fox said, noting that she wasn't donning her necklace and ruby tiara, today. On a second look, he also noticed she wasn't wearing her bracelets or anklets. Krystal gave a knowing smile and patted McCloud's cheek softly.

"They won't be necessary today," she told him. "Do you often go to Corneria to go 'shopping'?"

McCloud brought a paw to the nape of his neck, as though rubbing away awkwardness caused from the odd question. "When we get paychecks we update our stuff. But after eight years without money, the GreatFox needs to spend a few days in dry-dock. After we get the overhaul, we'll figure out what to do next… but with all this time on our paws the team isn't quite sure how to 'relax'. Corneria isn't as nice as Cape Claw but it's got its charm," Fox explained.

"Cape Claw? I really didn't get enough time to explore too much of the planet. I helped the Earthwalker Queen to make contact with Corneria, using communication's gear on my shuttle. When the planet split apart, I was separated from my ship. After that, I met with the Light Foots then met with the Cloud Runner tribe; they were looking for their leader… Once I had my things in order I got under way. This 'Cape Claw' you mentioned… Was it nice?"

"The Light Foot," Fox groused softly. "I didn't exactly see eye to eye with them," he added, thinking back to the first Light Foot tribe member he met on the beach of Cape Claw… the one with the yellowish jewel; they met under cannon fire of all things. Then the small velociraptor's tribe members pounced him in the forest and forced the pilot to take part in all those stupid tests. They weren't so bad in the end, but they certainly annoyed him. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yes, Cape Claw was a paradise resort. It's very small and cozy; not like the massive stretch of beach on Aquas or the old resorts of Zoness, from way back in the day."

"Also, I heard that Corneria has chosen to name the planet, 'Sauria' after the Queen Earthwalker, since she was the first contact they'd had with anyone from that world. I'm rather fond of it."

"Was that her name?" Fox asked with an inward chuckle. "I never asked."

As the two walked towards the flight deck, Falco quickly came into step besides them, and greeted the couple. "Incidentally, Fox, What was Zoness like? Why were its resorts something from the past? Did something happen to them recently?" she asked.

"Aw man," Falco cut in, "When Andross built a base under the sea and used the natural resources, like oil, from that planet, he had so many oil spills and his factories polluted so much, it'll take another century of hard work just to make Zoness' waters clear again. It was a sight to make anyone cry."

"Cry, yes… I cried quite a bit when I realized I was the last Cerinian left." She nodded in understanding, ironically _not_ understanding Falco's metaphorical use of the term about shedding tears.

Fox opened his muzzle to say something but no words came. Falco glanced away and appeared to feel equally awkward. Krystal looked them over and frowned, not having intended to hit them with a guilt trip. She decided to revert the subject back to this planet of which they spoke.

"I sense you were both fond of this resort planet at one time," she mused with a slight smile. She could tell that it really upset them both that the planet was ruined now. "Andross was a fool. If I find out he was truly to blame for what happened to my home, I'll make his life miserable."

Lombardi's mood changed swiftly. "Yeah, _if_ he survived the fight on that new planet. Fox and I kicked his sorry tail right out of orbit," Falco crowed, obviously satisfied with his handiwork and taking the extra chance to remind Fox that it was HE who came to the rescue the other day.

"Yeah. They're calling it Sauria now, by the way." Fox replied, adding, "Hopefully we've seen the last of him. It's been eight years and Corneria's government has only recently started to clean up some of his bio-weapon factories. Not to mention the monsters that he'd left behind. It's an expensive system-wide cleansing effort and it costs a lot of money."

"Bio Weapons? In the oceans and on the system's star, perhaps?" she asked, her inquisitive nature put aside, and her desire for answers resurfacing.

"Your telepathy tells you all that, huh?" Falco asked.

"Yes... but that isn't why I inquired," she replied, shaking her head sullenly. "It was rumored to have happened to our star. It may have been what caused the star to die out. Cerinia froze over and the population began to parish. When I left the area, it collapsed and the super nova swallowed my home and our natural satellite, Meredith. I," she trailed off, closing her eyes as the trio walked. Fox's chest wrenched. She could feel his emotions growing remorseful. Falco shook his head and ran his fingers through the ruffled feathers upon his head.

"I'm real sorry," Falco added. "Look, if Andross _didn't_ die after that, we'll let you take the first punch next time we clobber him, okay?" said the falcon, stuffing his winged hands into his pockets. "What was your place like?"

"Falco," Fox said, cutting his gaze to the avian.

"No, it's all right, boys." Krystal gave a grim chuckle and shook her head. "I'll answer the question."

Fox stopped in the hallway and turned around. "Let's talk about it on the way to the bridge, then. I want to let the guys know I'm leaving for the afternoon." Falco and Krystal pivoted and fell back into step alongside McCloud.

The little blue vixen began her description of the planet, detailing the culture differences from Fox and Falco's people, to the way gardens were constructed and homes were modeled. She briefly detailed leaving her planet after the lottery. Because of her status, she was the first to be picked from the lottery. She told them that she almost turned it down but as an explorer, a healer and an aspiring scientist, she wanted to leave the planet to find answers and, hopefully, to find help. Along with a few others, Krystal was given a ship and left Cerinia to seek aid, possibly from the neighboring system and its populated world, KEW. She told them the story of the last moments on her homeworld. "…And that was the last time I saw my parents. My father, Marcus, sealed the doors to the senate building and carried my mother down to the subterranean bunker. He was a good leader." The group reached the bridge.

As soon as they went inside, Fox quickly dashed over to a poster hung up on the wall. It was a scantly clad vixen with red fur. McCloud pulled it down quickly yet he was careful not to rip it. He rolled it up and passed it to Falco with a stern expression. Falco understood the look and tucked the rolled poster beneath an arm. Next, McCloud cleared his throat and addressed the rest of his team. "I'm going to take Krystal planet-side. She's more-or-less without any belongings. I also plan to stop by and see Pepper."

Peppy nodded, lifting a mug to his lips. He sipped from the hot tea then adjusted his glasses. "By the way, I heard from Lucy. She's starting at a new school tomorrow. Great pay and good benefits."

Fox grinned. "I'm sure she's made her poppa very proud. How're the boys?"

Peppy placed the mug aside and said, "The whole family is fine. It's nice to get calls from them every so often. You two have fun and stay out of trouble."

"Anyone else want to go?" asked the vulpine pilot.

"I've got some stuff to do," said Slippy. Peppy Hare offered a shake of his head.

Fox waved to them then turned about and placed his paw on Krystal's elbow, guiding her back into the hallway. Falco followed, looking rather bored. The avian switched the poster to his other arm, walking with a swagger. They resumed a casual conversation as the trio walked down the corridor. Lombardi stopped by his room and put the poster on his sofa then they continued at a leisurely pace.

Up ahead, the doors to the flight deck swished open and the three of them approached a shuttle pod, boarding it from the entrance ramp on the back end. Slippy and Peppy had a few things to go through on the bridge before they left the dreadnought in the hands of maintenance crews, and so they didn't join the planet-bound triumvirate.

The group decided to use Krystal's shuttle since StarFox lacked multi-personnel transports. Slippy had done some minor repairs to it and found a way to refuel it. The shuttle's rear hatch shut. Fox prompted Krystal to drive since she was used to the controls. The two mercenaries settled onto a bench along one wall, relaxing, as Krystal took the controls of her small ship.

They proceeded to the planet's surface, lowing from orbit and into the atmosphere. A lush crimson glow enveloped the pod, breaking through the stratosphere and into an endless blue sky. The Cornerian Capital City grew in size as her shuttle descended upon it. Fox hailed General Pepper directly, asking for clearance on the base since that was their first stop. On the upside, the base was in the middle of the city's downtown area, right on the water. It was only minutes away from public transportation, parks and malls.

Krystal could sense that Falco disliked being a passenger and grinned inwardly. It was his lack of being at the controls that made him feel awkward about the situation. She was still thirty thousand feet above the city, on approach to the coordinates on her dashboard monitor. She glanced back at the boys then she eased into the rudder controls, changing the pitch and axis just enough to do a loose barrel roll. Fox, not expecting it, quickly gripped the metal bar built into the bulkhead, above the bench. Falco cut an accusing glare up at the cockpit.

"Real funny," the avian muttered. After a moment his scowl melted into a grin. "I'd have done the same thing," he admitted. He tured to Fox and added, "I like her. She's easier on the eyes than Slippy and about as evil as I am."

"Playful," she corrected through silvery peals of laughter, "Not evil. Playful. And if you're not nice, I'll do it again," she said in a faux-threatening tone. Normally, she was far more serious in a cockpit or on a battlefield. However, now that the danger was over, she felt as though she could loosen up. Perhaps she was telepathically feeding off of their boyish ways – she couldn't be sure; she'd never thought to pull a practical joke before. Being around Fox and Falco really helped her loosen up. Drawing from their friendly mental state helped ease the pang of loss she carried with her during her pilgrimage from the doomed Cerinia. The new company made her life bearable.

"Don't you dare; I'm not wearing a seatbelt," Fox cut in, finally releasing the bar over the bench.

"Ah, very well. But I'm a pretty good pilot for a girl, no?" she chided, glancing back to the controls. At twenty thousand feet above the landing destination, she rolled the shuttle over and curved down in the bottom half of a loop, performing what Fox and Falco knew as the 'Split-S maneuver'. Fox was quick to grip at the bar again, while Falco locked his talons around another bar _beneath_ the bench.

"Will you cut that out?" Falco said, trying to keep from laughing. Fox chuckled as well, again letting his eyes roam up to the nose of the aircraft. She was built very well, and oddly, the blue fur was sexy. His eyes raked over her feminine visage, drinking in her luscious curves, but his breath caught in his throat when she glanced over her shoulder at him and grinned.

"Oh, erm, just watching where we're going," Fox said quickly. Krystal raised her eyebrows, turning back to the controls, confusion in her mind. Did Fox _lie_ or was he trying to be polite because he realized he was staring? Worse yet, was he embarrassed to be looking her over?

She had never known deception until she met Andross, and wondered if this was part of it. Fox's voice broke her thought, telling her, "I mean, you know. Sorry I was staring; I didn't realize I was doing it," he admitted. The worry in her heart subsided and she smiled softly over his honesty. No, she could tell by probing his heart and mind… he was nothing like that Andross character.

"It's perfectly fine," she told him with a knowing smile and a light giggle. "And natural, if you ask me. Don't be so hard on yourself. Ah," she trailed off, changing the subject as they neared the base. "Which runway is it? I see several," she said, pointing to the tiny straight strips of gray far below them.

"Actually," said Fox, "They're strips of fighter pads. We haven't used runways since the days of early jet propulsion… at least not for landing. Taking off, we still use'em to get up to speed – not for Arwings, though. You can land it straight on the ship's belly, Krystal. Just find an empty section when you're low enough to make out what's down there."

Krystal grinned, adding, "Very well. So do I get to meet this General Pepper?"

"Sure, why not," Falco chimed in. "I need to see the old hound m'self. It's been a few years, ya know? He's got a sense of humor like a computer nerd, but he's a good guy all in all." Falco stood up from his seat, approaching the nose of the shuttle. Fox did the same, until they were both looking over her shoulder. Falco lifted his feathery fingertips, pointing out an empty section close to the main building. He snapped an azure fingertip. "There! Look at that! A close parking spot; you can't beat that."

"Something wrong with walking," Fox joked, ribbing his buddy with an elbow.

"Yeah, it's no fun," Falco shot back, nudging his old friend in return. "Make sure you get it before someone else does," the avian told her with a light sense of urgency. "Front row parking is crucial."

"Relax, boys," she said in reply. She tilted the nose forward a bit, causing Fox and Falco to lightly grip the arm rests of her pilot seat. There was no G-Diffuser in this shuttle and the slightest movements caused the two pilots to get jostled about.

* * *

**Once they landed**, the three of them dismounted the shuttle and followed Fox towards the main building. He didn't wear a three-piece suit very often and Falco was completely opposite of Fox's attire. The avian wore a leather jacket with various metal hooks and unused clasps, which jingled lightly when he walked. The elbows and shoulders were padded, giving him an authoritative pose, getting looks from several military airmen as the three made their way into the building.

"What is a mercenary?" she asked, picking the word up from several prying eyes. The word was on the minds of just about everyone who saw them.

"Someone who gets paid to do stuff the Government doesn't employ the military to handle," Falco mused. "They contract us because getting their overly wimpy militia in on something like a 'dog fight' might make the planet look bad to the people. Some of these soccer-mom citizens are very judgmental types. It's hard to explain."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," she admitted, following the two men through the posh hallways of the large building.

"Corneria's Army is used for defense. The public doesn't like seeing their troops rush across Lylat to blow something up because the military isn't a police force. I think they're a bunch of pansies," Lombardi remarked with a smirk.

"Yeah," Fox agreed, "When they have to push an offensive they usually call us. It keeps the public happy. The only reason we got involved with Sauria is because Pepper wasn't sure if the planet was under attack and he knew we needed money bad. It was one of those '_I'll help you out if you help me out_' situations."

"Friend of the family?" Krystal asked, sensing Fox's closeness with the hound of which they spoke. Fox nodded to her question but she could already sense Fox's feelings about Pepper's friendship with his father, James. The three made their way to an escalator and took it to the fourth floor. They crossed the promenade then boarded a glass elevator. It lifted them up to level six. The trio filed out of the elevator and approached a lady at a desk. She was a pretty little cat girl with big brown eyes.

"Hey baby," Falco said, placing his elbows across the counter and grinning down at the secretary. "I bet you don't even remember my name."

"How could I forget, Mister Lombardi? It's been three years since the last time you've flirted with me, but don't think I've forgotten someone as outspoken as you," she said politely. Krystal could immediately sense that this girl, while genuinely glad to see him after so long, really didn't care much for the falcon. Again – it was a person who felt one way and said something entirely different just to be polite. It was an odd thing for Krystal to wrap her mind around – the subtle form of manipulation for the sake of tact. Oddly, she sensed that Falco already knew how this woman felt, and yet he poured on the plastic charm, just for his own self-amusement. Lylat had such an odd culture. It wouldn't take long to adapt, but she knew it was going to be awkward for the first few days.

"The General is waiting," said the feline, reaching for a button under her desk. "I'll buzz you in. Go on, it's unlocked now." She bade them goodbye with a simple nod of her head. The black and white cat quickly looked back down to her work. Krystal glanced back over her shoulder to see the way the woman was dressed. She had a professional business suit, unflattering skirt, well-ironed blouse and jacket, with matching low-heel shoes. The vixen had never seen anything like it. The girl at the front desk was looking busy on the outside, but secretly she was daydreaming of her boyfriend back at her apartment.

The General greeted the group from his office chair, quickly offering them lollipops from a candy jar on the desk. Falco was quick to search out a green one and unwrap it, while Fox politely declined. Krystal, on the other hand, was the first to speak. "Hello, sir. I'm Krystal from Cerinia. And I was wondering something. The girl out front… could you send her home early? Today's her boyfriend's first day off in three weeks and she really wants to spend time with him."

Fox looked shocked, Falco looked half embarrassed but Pepper stood up with a grin. He'd read the reports of Krystal being telepathic. The hound offered a nod of greeting to the group then replied to young Krystal with, "Why not? It's a beautiful afternoon, after all, right?" He reached for the call box on his desk and paged the secretary. Krystal immediately decided he was a good man and liked him for his optimistic, good natured personality. He had a majestic sense of honor about himself. She could tell he was a brave man with a large heart.

* * *

**Old A/N**:

_1 Eladard: Snes StarFox2._

_2 Papetoon: NP Comics '93_

_I'm writing this because I'm in the mood to do so, until I get my inspiration back to do more on The Curse and Similar Pathes Taken. Ta! I really could use feedback here. What do you guys want to see? I wanna write Krystal's change from the seashell and sandle clad girl we first saw, to the smokin' bodysuit babe we see in Assault._

_Anything, guys? Let me hear yaw'll roar on this subject, eh?_

_Next: Chapter -3- Culture Shock._


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: i try to keep the character personalities as closely related to the game personas as possible. Fox is very sure of himself, very confident and not normally shy, except around Krystal, because he's afraid he'll chase her off. By the time we see him and her in Assault, we notice that he's not afraid to ask if she's all right, or shout for her, if she's in trouble. But he does get awkward when tricky says something about them being lovers, so we know that he doesn't begin a relationship with her until sometime after Assault.

So, no. You won't see any major romance between the two in this short story. I sowwy. If people like it, I'll write a post-SF:Assault story that details a romance about them, but it's up to yaw'll to let me know if that's something you WANT to see me write. Leave feedback with your thoughts on the matter.

* * *

Chapter -3- Culture Shock

**G**eneral Pepper leaned back in his chair, looking over the woman. He'd never seen a blue-furred vixen before but she was quite lovely. He'd read about it in Fox's report, which was a requirement in order to get paid on such a mission. He broke the immediately ensuing silence with a joke. "So, Fox. I see you managed to save the planet without blowing it up. I'm really surprised you could pull it off without a blaster," He said with a grin.

"Yeah, but we still wound up kicking Andross's sorry butt back across the void," Falco quickly added.

"Quite right!" Pepper exclaimed. "And odd that we've seen him again. You always think you've seen the last of that one. I don't know if you've heard the news, but his nephew managed to escape from prison during your time on Sauria. So," Pepper said, turning to Falco. "You're back hm?"

"Want to pay us to find him? And yeah, I'm back," Falco said. "McCloud can't do much without his right hand man."

"I've actually employed another mercenary group to try and find Andrew Oikonni. StarFox just doesn't have enough pilots to find him quickly. I hope you're not upset," Pepper said, taking off the thick, dark aviator glasses he was wearing, placing them on the table. He used to wear them a lot, a decade ago, but now it was just wishful thinking to want to look young again. Falco, on the other hand, had a pair of sunshades over his head, held up by a head wrap cloth. Pepper knew the avian had participated in a reunion with the Space HotRodders and his ex-fiance, Katherine Monroe. Katt's statue of limitations on her last misdemeanor had passed, putting her in the clear again.

"I noticed, in your absence, that your gang was rather quiet," Pepper mused.

"Yeah, we spent some time on Eladard and Papetoon. I missed your paychecks, I didn't want Fox hogging all the action," Lombardi admitted with a coy grin.

"Yeah, you could smell the credits all the way on the other side of Lylat," Fox joshed, leaning back in one of the plush chairs found in Pepper's office. Falco did the same, crossing his ankles, slouching deeply into the seat. "Nice chairs, better than the ones you used to have, General," Fox mentioned in a polite tone.

Krystal gently nudged Falco, sitting between the two boys, to make him sit up, but her attempt was futile. She really looked out of place here. Falco was the bad-boy, Fox was prim, proper and polite, she was wearing a jersey with the number '73' upon it, as well as baggy sweat pants. Sandals completed the outfit which drew as many looks as her blue fur, which drew almost as many looks as the fact that two StarFox members had come through the area.

One thing she could tell about them, from the public opinion, was that they were honored as war heroes, but looked at as outcasts, for their mercenary ways. It was simply a liberalist planet in too many senses. General Pepper was the most war-minded citizen, being the old war-horse that he was. And that was saying quite a bit, in consideration of the fact that Pepper was rather a jolly, good natured hound, in this time of peace.

"So, who did you hire to track Oikonni," Fox finally asked. He was being eaten up with curiosity and wanted to find Andrew himself.

"HellCat Alpha," Pepper mused. "They're a completely different group since Panther Caroso left. Speaking of Caroso, I heard he's given up his job as an assassin for hire and joined StarWolf. An interesting change for him. I don't know how O'Donnell or Powalski can stand him, he doesn't seem their type."

Fox raised a paw, he didn't want Pepper to get off the topic, but changing over to a conversation about some guy who quit one group, went solo for a while, then joined StarWolf. Fox didn't know much about Panther Caroso, other than the fact he was in the news for a few days last year, but he did know that StarWolf was bad news and HellCat Alpha, while large, was nowhere as prestigious as StarFox.

"I know, Fox," Pepper said, shaking his head. "They have enough pilots to hunt for Andrew in multiple sectors. Three and four member squadrons with only two active pilots just don't make enough of a team to hunt down Andrew. It's a big system out there."

"Yeah," Fox said, shaking his head slightly. "I'm going to be putting Slippy back in a cockpit this year, was wondering if we could have you deduct a little from our check to buy the latest model of Arwings. The SFX model is a sweet ride, but it's 9 years old, next month. We need something a bit more modern. That's why I wanted to talk to you personally."

"Well Fox," Pepper said, "I've already put the credits into your account, but I'll be glad to allow you to make a purchase from Space Dynamics. I'll tell you what, I'll even put you LunarStone Hotels while GreatFox is under reconstruction. Once the refit is done, you'll have a nice place to put your new Arwings up. You plan on trading in your old models?"

"Yeah, I was thinking we should look into the new LandMaster, too. I'm not sure what we're going to do with Blue Marine, Slippy built it," Fox mused, turning to Krystal, who was quiet and paying attention to the conversation. "What do you think?" He asked her.

She could sense that he really felt she was part of the conversation, but she still felt she wasn't part of the team. She licked her lips with apprehension then replied. "Well, Fox. It seems as though your equipment does look a bit dated. I mean that in the nicest possible way, but there are gashes and dents in all of your ships," she said.

"They're character marks," Falco interrupted. "My Arwing has the least amount of 'Character', because I don't scratch it up."

"That's because there's a big enough character in the cockpit," She said with a grin that turned into soft laughter. Fox couldn't hold back at the double meaning and found himself chortling as well. Pepper lifted his paws to quiet them, then cleared his throat.

With eyes returning to the General, the hefty hound continued, "I'll get you your ships and tanks. In return, I'll give you their bluebook value, to donate to some of the outposts on Fortuna, their budget cuts are pretty big and even dented, I'm sure they'd like to have vehicles owned by StarFox. How many Arwings and Tanks are you trading up?"

The vulpine thought over his numbers for what he wanted to buy, verses what he had, then stole a glance at Lombardi. "Four tanks, five Arwings, counting Falco's. I want to get at least Six Arwings and Five Tanks purchased, seven fighters if possible. If Krystal ultimately stays with us, I'll make use of a four pilot squadron again. As far as Peppy goes, well... you know as well as I do, that he's in no shape to fly the way we did, 8 years ago," said McCloud. "I'll get Peppy and Slippy to stop by and crunch all the numbers. I actually wanted to take Krystal out around the city before it got dark."

Pepper chuckled softly. Krystal could sense that the hound dog was pleased by what Fox said. It was almost like a father being proud of his son for the boy bringing home his first girlfriend. Pepper gave a polite wave to dismiss them, the good natured grin parting to add, "Go on, you three. Enjoy your vacation."

x-

* * *

Falco turned to Fox, in the parking lot, in front of the tram station. "Look, I'm going to go catch up on some stuff, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't worry," he said. "I'm not leaving again, relax. Go do the lovebird thing," He added, walking off towards the Westbound tramcar.

"...Falco!" Fox hissed, turning away from Krystal. He was blushing furiously, not wanting to chase her off. Krystal smiled politely, taking his arm and leading him towards the city-bound tram. She couldn't yet read the signs but the thoughts of all the people on that train told her they were all going towards the shopping district. That was obvious enough, for her.

The two sat on the tramcar, talking about what each of them had done to fight on Sauria. Fox had mentioned something along the lines of physical combat, but his description of what it entailed, sounded nothing like what her people did during a physical fight. It was decided that later, they would have to spar, to help the other understand what their friend had detailed as paw-to-paw combat.

Once they arrived in the shopping district of downtown Corneria, Krystal found herself simply wowed. Holographic signs, laser lights, massive stone and glass spires that reached to the sky. Behemoth interstate bridges towered above the streets. A huge fountain, a building with a massive screen upon it, that displayed the news. It was breathtaking. The two began a leisurely stroll through the commercial district, stopping so that Krystal could peer into the window of different shops, browsing through some, before she came to a stylist boutique.

"What is this place?" She mused outloud. She had to, her question would have gone unanswered if she asked it in her mind, which was what she was used to doing. Fox spoke without even thinking it through, explaining how they cut one's hair, style it and change the appearance of one, to keep up with the latest trend. Krystal grinned. "That sounds interesting."

"You really want to do something with your hair?" He asked her, glancing back through the window of the stylist.

"It would be easier to fit into this culture, don't you think?" she asked. Fox simply shrugged and the two stepped inside. Krystal approached one of the women who stood adjacent to a chair that was attached to a short pole that disappeared into the ground. It had a metal footrest and was positioned in front of a mirror. This was a common practice from her home, as well. One couldn't let their headfur get too long, it would become unruly.

She slipped into the chair, while Fox found a magazine to read...

It only took about thirty-five minutes. When Fox looked up, she had a few strands of her hair dyed to a light, cyan-color of blue, while several of her bangs were braided together, with white beads hanging from them. It was rather different. Her hair was still feathery and layered, but this actually worked for her, one of the latest trends.

A giggle offered, "This is actually quite fun. Now let's find something more ladylike to wear?" She said, taking his right paw and leading him to the cash register. The idea of Capitalism and economy was still a fresh concept to her, but her telepathic ability helped her see it for what it was. Even on Sauria, where the currency was comprised of insects, the idea of capitalism was strong in Lylat.

The next strip of stores was comprised of various fashion outlets. After visiting store after store, Krystal had made use of the dressing rooms, modeled for Fox, which appeased his masculine ego, then picked out a wardrobe of clothing, including a sleek blue body suit, which matched her fur. To her surprise, citizens in this district of Corneria looked at her normally. Most of them simply assumed she had performed a full body dye-job, going from blondish to blue. Some clerks even praised her on the tones she'd put herself into. It wasn't praise she was used to, but took each compliment well.

The dizzying display of Holograms, lights and signs kept her eyes amused the entire day. Thousands of people who never spoke with their minds, yet had much to say, made it somewhat quiet in her mind. She didn't have thousands of voices, full of purpose, running through her mind. It was an occasional lady's voice in her mind, asking if something looked right, or the occasional thoughts of a male, trying to figure out what to buy, but not wanting to ask for help. Some men repeated a thought over and over, trying to remember what they've come for, while some women randomly passed a silent judgment on other women, yet smiling ever-so politely, to look civil.

It was a strange world for Krystal. But she was immediately in love with it. Most of them didn't think, they just acted or spoke. She'd never been in such a populated place, that was so quiet in her mind, before this day. The clothes she picked out were stunning and with Fox's permission, she even picked out a platinum tiara with an emerald in the center. A matching necklace and rings completed the set. For not understanding the basic principle behind money, she sure knew how to help the Corneria Economy with her spending.

By the end of the evening, Fox had rented a metal buggy to carry her bags, but he was understanding about it all. She had nothing. Her entire world was destroyed, she had nothing. No clothes, nothing to remind herself of her past life. Her only option, as it currently stood, was to embrace this life as tightly as she could manage. Fox was looking tired by the end of the day but she felt hyper. She wouldn't be able to sleep, her eyes wide, her tail bushy, she had an entire world to explore. Fox decided to rent an automobile so they could cruise around town more easily. The sun had set and Krystal never felt more awake in her life. Was this culture shock?

She only needed to bat her eyelashes to get Fox to take her back to LunarStone Hotels, Pepper was gracious enough to get them a suite, with two bedrooms and a living room area. She could sense, easily, that Fox was leaning towards the bedroom on the right, so before she even asked, she took her new clothing into the one on the left. Fox had brought a suitcase, as well, but it wasn't quite large enough to hold a wardrobe such as the size she'd acquired earlier in the day.

She paused before a mirror, in the room and smiled thoughtfully. She never really gave much thought to her personal appearance. But something beyond modesty had crept into her heart and she felt as thought she wished to play with her image, just to see how different styles would effect McCloud. She still had a great deal to learn about the Lylat male, but so far, Fox was being a good sport and even resembled somewhat of a guinea pig in her experiment into Lylat Psychology.

Remember Fox's promise of the sparring, she chose the topaz two-toned sapphire colored body suit. It was stretchable, really. There was a metallic railed object, resembling a zipper, on the back but was covered by a fold-over piece of the fabric. She unzipped it and disrobed, sliding into the sleek suit. It stretched to allow her body into it's comfortable confines. She pushed her tail down into the back with her paws, guiding the tip through the tail hole beneath the zipper, then pulled her paw free to draw her fluffy appendage free. Once it was on, she carefully felt for the zipper and pulled it up to the nape of her neck, then gave a tug on the fabric in a few key places.

"I love this," She mused, facing the mirror. She'd never worn something so flattering before. It gave her rump a rounded, yet heart-shapped appearance, the blue boots attached to the bottom of the body suit felt comfortable and elevated her height a few inches. To give it a test she drew her paw into a fist then lifted her arms above her head. She then lifted her left leg, balancing herself on her right hind paw, touching the tip of her foot, above her head. The suit was comfortable and accentuated the slender curvature of her body, adding firm support to her breast and a comfortable lining of her back.

"I think I could certainly get used to this world," She added under her breath, soft tones spoken so as to keep her thoughts private. Just then, she glanced up at the mirror and blinked. This was the first time, she'd ever thought to have a personal thought to herself. She was from a world where no one judged because everyone already knew what was on your mind, but here, people did judge and it almost seemed awkward to have a private moment to herself.

Was her power of telepathy intrusive to others? She decided that being civil and keeping it to herself, the way Fox tried keeping his eyes and thoughts to himself, was beneficial to those around her. It was such a strange world, where everyone was so naive and afraid to say the wrong thing. They were a misunderstood race, even amongst themselves. She gave one last tug at the fabric, so that it wasn't riding up her body in the wrong areas, then turned around, looking over her shoulder. A flicker of her tail, and a smile offered.

"You dress up nicely," she told herself, going back to the pile of clothes on the floor and fishing out two scrunchies. She pulled the fur of her tail down with one paw, using the other to apply the white fabric bands, which helped to keep her tail from growing... well, poofy. Sometimes she used metallic braces, other times she used these.

Finally emerging from her room, she placed her paws upon her hips and grinned. "You'd better change into something less formal if you want to spar. I believe we passed a gym on the first floor of this hotel." Her words caused Fox's head to lift and his jaw to drop. The streaked highlights of several strands of her hair nearly matched the light blue part of her suit, while the darker strands matched the deeper azure color of the fabric. It seemed to gleam in the living room light, the shiny material giving her somewhat of an aura, a shapely feminine border around her lithe, curvy frame.

She couldn't help it, her expression lit up, seeing that his eyes were placated by what they saw. It was certainly the acceptance she sought. "The spar?" Her words caused him to snap out of his gawking and he blinked twice, glancing up to meet her emerald iris', twin pools of the richest sea-green imaginable, offset by blue fur and matching attire. One word came to his mind, and she made a mental note to ask him what it meant at a later time. "Smokin'."

She wondered how it would look with the opulent jewelry she often wore. But that was something she could worry about later. For now, a spar would put to the test the flexibility of this outfit. She didn't know what she liked more about it, the way she looked in the mirror, or the way this garment made her feel, knowing she looked this way. Fox nodded once more, opening his suitcase and going through some of his stuff. He'd not given it much thought, but there wasn't much here that would be good for sparring.

Reading these thoughts, she approached him, patting his shoulder and whispered, "I'll get your jersey and sweat pants from my room. You don't mind wearing them again, after I've been in them all day, do you?"

"N-not at all," he said, shutting the suitcase decisively. It's the closest he would get, to getting into her pants for a while. And yet they still had so much to learn about one another. After all, Fox was 26, now. Eighteen years old during the Lylat wars, and 8 years later, he was over halfway to thirty. Krystal on the other hand, wasn't quiet 17 yet. She still had 3 months to go and another year after that, to be considered an Adult by the standard of Corneria. But that would make becoming a citizen more easy.

Without the ability to sleep after such wonderful sensory overload, on her tour of the Capitol City, she had a great deal of energy to relieve. Hopefully, the spar would do just the trick. And yet she had so much to learn about Lylat. It was a mesmerizing place to visit. It had captured her inner imagination and the boisterous vixen wanted to experience every part of it, as soon as possible.

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Next: Chapter -4-: Don't Judge a Girl by her Color. 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: We learn here, that Krystal is giving herself a purpose. Everything here should coincide with the gamecube games, fairly well, but I still managed to add in my own little dash of imagination, to keep things fresh. Lunar Stone hotels? I got that off of the CORNERIA board on SF:Assault. I also got Space Dynamics Co. LTD, the manufacturer of the Arwing, from that board. I try to use the names of Cornerian businesses that were advertised in that level. Krystal's name for her Chi-maneuver, I dreamed up, on my own. That's not in the game, but I explain it in a believable way..or at least I hope I do, heh.

Finally, we see Krystal interact with someone other than Fox, for at least a few minutes, near the end, here. For all of you who gripe at me over the ages? I've looked into it. In SF64, Fox was 18, Falco was 19, Slippy was 18.  
SF:Adventures happens EIGHT YEARS LATER. 18+8 equals 26. So, after SF:Adventures, Fox is 26. Deal with it, yes he's getting to be an old man, good grief. In SF:Assault, 2 years later, he's about 28. I know that really ruffles some of your feathers the wrong way, to think that Fox is close to 30, but hey. Do the math. :)

Krystal is 16 in SF:Adventures. She's 18 in SF:Assault. Heck, Sailor Moon was 14, and she was a hero, so we have to keep in mind that Krystal and Fox probably have their relationship start around the closing of "ASSAULT", when she's... you know... legal? That doesn't mean they can't be friends, first. Falco's 29 now, and he's still a huge child at times. :D Heck, the guy's from "TOOL", the band are in their mid 40's. Gwen Stephani is almost 37. You can be a million years old and still be young. So don't everyone get up in arms that I'm blatently putting it in writing that Fox is older than 21. Remember, he wasn't a 12 year old when he fought the Lylat Wars. (Although Slippy's voice kinda sounds 12, haha)

And thank you, everyone who's taken an interest in this story. I actually did it for you guys. I felt no one was reading my other stuff, so I decided to jot something down, that would get attention. I appreciate the feedback, and I appreciate the emails and the IMs. I'm shocked. I'm amazed! I'm astonished! I even saved a bunch of money on my car insurance!

* * *

Chapter -4-: Don't Judge a girl by her Color. 

Fox opened the door to the lavish hotel's gym. It wasn't the size of a fitness center or anything, but there was a soft pad at the back of the room, large enough for a small group of people to stretch. The mat was rectangular, but there was a large circle in the center, which Fox came to one side of, Krystal coming to the other.

"I can tell you're feeling weird about this," She said, shaking her head slightly, causing those tendrils of azure to bounce about her pretty girlish features. Never fought a woman before?

"Actually, I've never sparred with a minor before," Fox replied. "My flight instructor was a woman and was quite the challenge, so I know not to judge a girl in the ring."

"AH, I see!" Krystal smiled softly, her eyes dancing over the 73 on his shirt, then lifting to his own eyes, a darker shade of green than her own. She looked down at her nails which were painted white, the same color as her hair beads, then smiled. Meanwhile, Fox cracked his knuckles, placing his right paw behind his neck and pressing his fingertips into the top of his spine, then tilted his head, not quite with the bone jarring pop sound that Falco caused, doing the same thing, but a noise all the same. "Ready?" She asked, placing her paws out before herself. She knew Fox was a sure combatant but something about this made her feel as though she had an advantage.

"Do you want me to go easy?" Fox asked. Krystal giggled in reply then walked over to the wall where there was rubberized gear. She plucked a red and blue set off the shelf, strapping the head gear to either side of her face, then pulled on the paw and foot coverings, as well as a shinguard. She tossed the red set over to Fox and returned to the edge of the circle, across from him.

Fox quickly put the gear on, not having even realized that the hotel would carry such amenities. Once he was ready, he lifted his left paw and signaled for the match to begin. They could throw their weight into punches with the safety gear, and not hurt the other, but she seemed ready, confidence in her eye.

"So how many were in your litter, Fox?" Krystal said, as she began strafing to the left, Fox doing the same, so that they walked sideways around the inside of the circle together, facing one another.

"My... litter?" Fox said, making sure that it wasn't a ruse to confuse him, while she gets a strike in.

"Your Parents, Fox. How many siblings were in your Litter?" She said, reaching out with her left paw, shoulder hight, while keeping her right paw across her mid section, to protect from any counter strikes he might try.

Fox dodged his head back, and used his paws to connect with her wrist, to keep her at bay, with a slight touch, as they continued to strafe along the circle once more. He gave the question a little thought, and finally answered, "As far as I've ever known, I'm an only child, why do you ask?"

"No reason, really. You have any cousins?" She asked, side stepping an attempt for a grasp, on Fox's behalf. The strafing continued, to the left. Both had their paws extended half way, as they circled about on the mat, poised to strike.

"No, I've not even been to a family function since Mom passed away in the Car bomb that secured Andross's exile from the planet."

"They banish you for murder on Corneria?" Krystal was in shock.

"No, it just happened to add to whatever he was doing, that scared everyone into wanting him out of the system. We did away with Death Sentences, and banishment is usually more harsh than a cell," Fox explained, then went for a lunge, but his strike was blocked by the pads on her wrists. She lifted her left leg, extending it gracefully, in a swift strike at what should be his balancing leg, but it was blocked, as he drew his right leg up, her foot connecting with his shin guard pad.

Fox used his palm, thrusting it forward, at her jaw, to knock her off balance, but she dodged right, and used her hands to grasp his wrist and her other hand to strike the inside of his elbow, causing his arm to unextend, so as to keep him at bay. The momentum of each vulpine's attack, caused him to pass her, and his paws went to her back, to give a gentle shove, to keep her at bay as well, then they turned and faced each other once more. The strafing began once again, as they circled about on the mat, keeping their paws up in a defensive manner.

"I'm sorry to hear that. You haven't heard so much as a word from other family members?" she asked, between another offering of deflected jabs. She'd told him about a chi-maneuver back on the tram, which had a fancy name, but she didn't use it on him yet.

"I bounced around as a kid. Spent some time on Papetoon, spent some time on Katina. Just trying to make ends meet with Peppy and my school-chum, Slippy," Fox explained, as he stepped forward, putting his right paw at the back of her neck, and his left palm at her hip, trying to spin her off balance. Using his feet, and a roll-back technique that, when successful, would put the foe flat on their back, Fox made a quick offensive and at too close of a range for her to do a kippup... the ability to jump to one's feet from flat on their back. It was, however, unsuccessful.

Krystal brought her left knee up into Fox's stomach, as he reached forward, and when he doubled over, she brought her elbow down upon his back, but even with her strength, and all her weight put into the second blow, it wasn't enough to drop him. She followed through with an uppercut, in a three strike combination move, that left Fox only phased for a moment. Her hand connected with the soft head-gear that covered underneath and either side of Fox's jaw and head.

He swiftly retaliated with a smoothly executed roundhouse kick, that Krystal was able to dodge, by pulling her head back. However, that left her prone to the following sweeping move. Fox dropped to the floor, his left leg extended, sweeping around in a circle, taking Krystal's feet out from under her. However she had enough room and the stamina to execute the kippup and landed square upon her feet, in a balanced position, arms half-extended and ready once more.

"Nice moves," Fox started.

"Nice counter," She replied, almost over top of his compliment.

"So where's this Doho duji thing you mentioned?" Fox said, taking another graceful swing, jabbing at empty air, as she dexteriously side stepped the attack.

"Dahn Daju?" She corrected. The term was pronounced "do han - da shu."

"Sure, Dahn Daju," Fox repeated the way she said it, with the accent she used on the words. Krystal put her left paw out before her, raising her left arm slightly, and angling her wrist in an arc, before landing a quick strike, that mimicked his previous jab, and landed the blow on his gut.. But strangely, it was enough of a force, to knock him flat on his tail. He sat on the mat, looking up at her in amazement.

"And that was left handed... You can use it the other way around too, and use the energy harnessed in your mind, to absorb the blow of an attack. In a sense, absorb the passing kinetic energy, that transfers from the attacker, to your body, so that the attacker isn't pushed backwards by the force of the strike. Like I said, it takes a great deal of meditation," Krystal explained.

Fox drew himself up, then lunged at her, placing his shoulder directly into her gut, so that he could lift her in a single motion, following through with the upward flipping of her feet, so that she was flung over his shoulder. Her hands met the mat, and she rolled forward, coming to her feet and whirling around, poised with her paws up once more.

"Clever," She said with a grin.

"You're more resilient than I thought," he mused, turning about for the next round. "So show me how this other form of your art works?"

"Well, it's actually the art of my ... people," She paused, drawing out the last word as the realization of the fact that she was the only member of her people left alive. "Well, I suppose I could eventually teach it to someone else, so it doesn't die out. All right, Fox. I want you to run at me, and try to kick me as hard as you can. Don't hold back, I promise you won't hurt me," She explained.

Fox tilted his head, then made a running start, jumping into the air and putting his feet out. Doing a jump kick was something anyone could do, but landing on one's feet was the hard part. Either way, she ran at her and leapt forth, burring her foot into her chest. Instead of the energy of the motion being transfered, her body was like an anchored temple and he bounced off of her, being knocked backwards several feet, onto his tail.

She had shut her eyes and jutted her chest out, arching her back in a state of light meditation, when his kick collided with her body, and even her clothes looked unwrinkled. Fox was shocked. He sat up, gathering himself and coming to his feet, just gawking at her.

"How is that possible?" he asked.

Krystal smiled. She offered another jab but he was able to block it, while saying, "Our people feel it's the best defense. You've seen it in action already, I'm sure. We built the staff with those abilities. The glowing blue defense barrier built into the staff? any physical object merely bounced off or dissipated, did it not? That is the same thing, but the staff uses a rechargeable power cell to emulate what the mind's natural abilities are, in that respect."

"I didn't know it was a rechargeable power cell, I was using the solid, jewel like nectar from planets on Sauria to repower it," he said.

"Yes, I noticed that, too." Krystal tilted her head and added, "The hardened nectar from those plants on that planet seemed to act as high-powered lemons, recharging the battery pack in the staff quite easily. I imagine, had we actually tried it, they would have worked on field-gear as well. I actually used them to power my damaged ship just enough to break orbit and board the GreatFox when your fight with Andross had concluded."

"Resourceful girl," Fox complimented, his next set of kicks being blocked by her shin-pads. "So how did the staff work? I noticed that when it wasn't in use, it could shorten in size, for easy storage."

The blue vixen shrugged, following through with a quick jab to Fox's face guard. "It's telescopic design allows it to fold into itself when not used. It's made of a metal polymer composite that was plentiful on Cerinia. The only way to turn that metal into liquid in order to shape fighter hulls and weapons with it, is to use another liquid element from our world, at boiling temperatures. But once you put the metal into the shape you want it to stay in, you've got to extract the heated liquid of the other element. To be honest, I was never a geologist or expert in that field. I can tell you that they did it, but I don't know all the details of how," She explained, taking a quick jab back, from his paw.

"That's amazing. I could use that Staff to knock a Sharpclaw through the wall and it didn't even bend, yet it's so light. Cerinia must have been an amazing planet," He said.

"Yes, but Andross was quick to take what resources he could, ruin us and leave," She scowled softly. "I know the General paid another group to find the nephew of Andross, but I know I could find him."

"Why, did you want to?" Fox asked. Okay, so she was telepathic. She probably could track him. But would they get paid? And worse yet, would they start a turf-war between the two mercenary groups if they got in on HellCat Alpha's mission? He didn't want to find out.

"If he knows where his Uncle is, I would want to stomp Andross into the dirt and ask him if the bioweapon he created caused our sun to collapse."

"And if Andy Oikonni doesn't know?" Fox posed the question in soft tones, regardless of ducking her next strike.

"We hand him to the other mercenary team?" She asked in return. "I know I could find him," She said.

"If you could track him down that easily, I would want you to join StarFox," Fox replied, using his paw guards to fend off her next set of quick strikes, before replying with a jab and kick of his own.

"I would accept, but need to learn how to fly an Arwing," She said. "But I'll stay, unless I learn that my quest for answers takes me in a different direction. Right now, I have nowhere else to go," She admitted sourly. She confided this to Fox, following a graceful back roll, to avoid his offensive maneuver.

"I'll train you to fly an Arwing, and you find Andrew for us. I'll give you a place to belong and family, and you fly for the team. Sounds like a deal," Fox said, offering a paw to shake. She took it. After the shake, he pulled her forward, sweeping her to the floor, causing her to grin up at him. She suddenly reached a single paw out, touching his hip. With her chi-like practice, Fox suddenly found an extraordinary amount of energy transfered into his body, throwing him to the mat, as well.

The two couldn't help but laugh about it, sitting on the mat for a few minutes, just relaxing after their sparring conversation. Both were amused, what could the other say? Fox glanced down at the mat quietly, trying not to fidget. She was more intelligent than most girls her age, that was for sure.

"So how old were you, when you lost your father?" She asked, keeping her tone reverent and polite.

"I was 17 when he showed up as missing in action. He and Peppy were both listed as Missing in Action. It was supposed to be Peppy's last year in the military. He managed to Escape Venom and reported in, then he told me what happened, personally."

Krystal placed her hand over her muzzle. "I'm - I'm so sorry. I completely understand how you feel to lose your parents at that age." To this, Fox felt guilty, because she was just about to turn 17 now, and lost both her parents at the same time. Plus all her friends and family. Her entire home world. "What happened after that?" She asked.

"Well, I was still a minor by Corneria standards, and my parents home and stocks and the whole will brought me enough to survive, plus dad had just purchased GreatFox, so that was left to me. Also, the military pays a the family of the dead soldier, plus life insurance, so I had enough money that, on my 18th birthday, I purchased Arwings, two LandMaster Tanks and the parts for Slippy and Mister Beltino to construct the Blue Marine. I was gearing up for a war with Venom, it just so happened that Peppy retired from the military and came to live with me, Slippy and Falco, who had just turned 19.

Fox continued, "The Cornerian government was overrun, trying to spread themselves thin. They wanted to help Katina, fight on several other fronts, and protect their own planet, but Andross had enacted a draft on Venom and had more militia troops than Corneria could manage. Pepper put out the word that Mercenaries would be paid but they, too, found themselves pinned down. StarFox was staying out of the way, while we trained our tails off. I wanted to be the best."

"You stayed out of the war at first?" She asked.

"I wanted to hunt down Andross personally. I had to prepare. I didn't want Slippy to die or Falco to get killed, we had to be the best and these were new Arwings. We only had about 3 months of use in these machines, at the time," he explained. "We were the last mercenary squadron still in operation, so Pepper sent an encoded message for us, begging. Something about how Corneria's army alone can't do the job, and to please come help them. I felt torn, because we weren't ready just yet, but I couldn't let Pepper down, he was a friend of my father."

"You were only 18, and fighting a full scale war?" She asked, looking him over quietly. He was quite a man, intelligent, mature and resourceful.

"Yeah," Fox said with a dry chuckle. "We did rush into the war. I mean, as soon as we got to Corneria, Falco had problems with his G-Diffuser system, Peppy was still teaching us to do loops in these machines and reminding us when to do barrel rolls to keep ourselves from getting pummeled. He would remind me that I was getting better as a leader and getting almost as good as my father. If Pigma Dengar didn't betray dad, over Venom, Dad would have ended the war before it got out of control."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Pigma Dengar sounds like a dishonorable man," She said softly. She remembered seeing a photograph on the GreatFox of James, Peppy and Pigma, with marker scribble covering Pigma's face. She knew Fox was still hurt by it, after all this time.

"Yeah, so. We got lucky, we ripped through Lylat, taking out the commander of each battlefield, leaving a few fighters without their leaders. I figured Corneria's army could handle the leftovers. Then we headed for Venom and after a scrap with StarWolf, we went straight for the Jackpot," Fox explained. There was no use telling her about the hallucination of his Father helping him escape the base. It was too weird, even for himself.

"How long ago was that?" She asked.

"Well, 8 years after the War ended, we were broke and in need of money. The thing with Sauria came about and Pepper knew we needed the cash. So, I'm 26 now. It was a long time to go without a great deal of money. GreatFox was getting old and was in desperate need of a re-fit, the Arwings needed replacing... Sauria turned into a bigger job than we anticipated. The Fact that Andross was involved made Pepper agree to pay us a bonus, so we're feeling pretty rich, again. I just hope it stays that way."

Krystal stood up, offering a paw. Fox grinned up at her, then finally took the offered hand, coming to his feet. She leaned up and kissed the cheek of his muzzle softly, causing him to blush slightly, then told him, "We have a lot in common. I'm sure we'll make wonderful friends."

"I'm glad," he replied, adding, "I'd like that. You aren't from Lylat, and without a home, you're automatically emancipated, so you're an adult by Corneria's terms. But we've got to get you an ID. Maybe tomorrow I can take you by the Department of Identification Registry and make you an official citizen. Everyone deserves to belong."

She smiled in reply. "You're sweet." Then began to remove the sparring gear, putting it back on the shelf. Fox did the same, putting the red pads next to her blue ones, then opened the glass doors for her, leading her out of the gym and back to their suite. She took to her room and shut the door behind herself, while Fox went into his room to crash out.

Krystal decided that she adored the Cornerian clothing. She was thankful that Fox bought it all for her, and even more, that she had friends again. It made the pain of coping more easy. The suit was hung up on a hanger and she opened a tinted glass door to the shower that was installed in her room.

The lithe blue vixen perused the touch screen controls for the water and tilted her head. She'd not been in Lylat long enough to have learned how to read the language and so she had to figure it out on her own. There was a set of numbers in the center of the touchscreen, with a blue arrow pointing down and a red arrow pointing up. It was obvious that this was the temperature controls, but how to get the faucet to activate was what she needed to figure out.

She tried various buttons, one of which caused the wrong faucet to activate, filling the tub, instead of turning on the shower spicket. Another button dimmed the lights, then made it brighter, and on the third push, turned them off, all together. She kept pushing it until the lights were back to what they were before. Yet another button opened and closed the tub drain.

If she didn't get a shower soon, after that spar, she was going to shrivel up from sweating. She hated that feeling and continued her search of the touch screen panel, trying to figure out the little icons on the screen, since the words meant nothing to her. Finally, she opened a menu that displayed an icon of what looked like a shower faucet, and pressed it. To her delight, the shower hissed to life, and she put her paw under the water.

After only a few seconds, the water heated to the temperature displayed on the wall. It was still too cold and she pressed the red arrow, pointing up, causing the numbers to raise. Once the water was a temperature she liked, she turned to the linen closet, grabbed a towel off one of the shelves and put it on the metal bar besides the sink.

The bathroom had become an adventure, all it's own. She finally slipped into the shower, pulling the glass door shut and hunted for the soap. Corneria was a fancy world with fancy amenities, she wasn't yet used to. The dispenser was built into the wall and ejected a soap bar at the mere touch of a wall tile. To her delight, the soap popped up, from the tray, along with a shampoo dispenser that worked at the touch of a button.

"What was wrong with having a soap tray and a shampoo bottle sitting on a shelf?" She wondered allowed. But the truth was, she felt fascinated by all this high-tech sleek shower stall. It was, after all, a high-dollar hotel in the largest City on Corneria.

She lathered the soap up, caressingly working it into her fur, then she stepped beneath the shower faucet, sorta just melting under the heat of the water. It felt good on her neck and shoulders, just hot and the tingling clean sensation. "A woman could get awfully used to such a luxurious bath," she said aloud. That was the second time she spoke out loud and this time, she realized it.

"If you don't stop talking to yourself, people are going to think you're crazy," She said, more for her amusement, than anything. She was so used to sharing her thoughts with everyone around her, that even talking out loud seemed more private on this planet, than what she was used to.

For now, it was just her, the hot water and the peaceful silence. She could sense Fox's thoughts but he was in a state of relaxation, clearing his mind, to help himself sleep. His calm vibes were a soothing balm on her soul. It kept her from thinking about her parents or other family members. It kept her from dwelling on the deaths of her friends, or her people. What no one knew was the fact that her jewelry was really symbolic. She was royalty.

Most of the scientific minds of her people and certain qualified telepathic explorers and researches had been given the right to leave the planet when it was freezing over, but her parents sent the ever-young Krystal because they felt it was her birth-right, as a Princess, to try and save her people.

Krystal felt awful. She'd not even made it to the edge of her star system when the sun collapsed and destroyed Cerinia and it's surrounding heavenly bodies. She failed at her task and, although it wasn't her fault, she felt as though it was. It was her nature to help others. But she couldn't even help her own people. Her quest for answers was all she could do for them now.

She placed a paw over the cardinal-sun tattoo on her thigh. A crest of her mother and father, the monarch of the largest continent on the upper hemisphere of her planet. The Kings and Queens of each nation came together as the governing body for the entire planet, and Krystal would have been part of that Government if Andross never interfered with her world, she just knew it.

Those soft, blue fingertips traced over the branded marking that was inked in white, on her upper left leg. It was all that survived of her family's heritage. After a moment, she placed her hand on her bicep, rolling her thumb over the design that stood as a crest for her paternal family. The markings that were branded and inked into the females of the entire bloodline. They were all gone. Their markings survived through her life. She was all that was left of her world. It was a saddening, bitter thought.

She allowed her mind to focus on Fox's relaxing thought patterns to calm herself. He was strong of will and had a mature mental process. She could feel his strong, pure heart radiating from the other room. She placed her paws against the shower tiles, resting her head against the wall, just slumping under that hot water. She knew they were dead. They would have wanted her to have a higher purpose and do something good in her life. Was helping StarFox the right call to make?

They were war heroes, who only accepted mercenary missions that created a better good. They didn't take assassination jobs, or anything like that. They took escort jobs, security details, saving innocent bystanders, things that one could do and look at themselves in the mirror without shame. She decided then, that she was secretly in love. Not just with her new lifestyle and new friends and new home, but with the man in the next room over.

Sure, they had only just become friends and there was no use rushing into things so early, but if she played her cards right, they had forever to evolve into something more. She still had a great deal to learn about Fox, so for now she decided it was best to keep her crush in her heart. No need rushing into Romance. She had to get her life back together first. She had a lot to learn, from how to read Cornerian, to how to fit into her new role as the only female on board GreatFox.

x-

* * *

The next morning... 

A knock at the door was just loud enough to cause Krystal's eyes to flutter open. She arched her back, stretching and yawned. That cute little pink tongue curled, and she inhaled deeply, then licked her dry lips, smacking them together for a moment.

"Come in?" She called, pulling the edge of her blanket up, so that it was even with her shoulders. Fox was already dressed and stood in the doorway with a brilliant smile. She was so beautiful, her hair was every-which-way, and her delicate frame was portrayed as a shapely figure beneath the blanket. Something innocent about her waking up fresh, she just looked ... lovely. Behind him, Falco was milling through the living room of the suite, the smell of coffee waifed over her senses, something she'd never had before. Whatever the aroma was, it was inviting and ever so invigorating.

Fox could see her cute little nose twitching and grinned. "It's coffee. It's made out of a bean, we grow it, like Chocolate."

"Chocolate?" She asked.

Falco stuck his head in the doorway, a shocked look over his features. "You've never heard of Chocolate?"

"Should I have?" she asked.

Fox continued, "Another planet we make a sugary sweet candy out of it. Then if you use the cane of the planet, you can also get a healing powder called cocaine, that you use to heal cuts and wounds. But the other part of the coco plant grinds down and we use it to make chocolate," he explained.

"Yeah, the fact that we have chocolate is how we know God really exists," Falco said, walking back towards the kitchenette to get a cup of coffee. He brought it back and handed it to Fox. "Here, let her try some of this, it'll knock her socks off."

Fox took the ceramic mug and brought it to her bedside, sitting down on the edge of the mattress. She took her paws out from under the blanket and captured the coffee mug by it's handle. "It's hot," She mused. She wasn't expecting it to be any particular extreme of temperature. She took a taste and blinked.

"It's an acquired taste, but once you drink it, you really come to live for it, if you're like Falco, over there," Fox told her. "Be careful, though. If you drink a lot of it, well. It can make you quite hyper. That's what it's supposed to do, wake you up. The beans have a coating of something we call caffeine. It's a natural substance that makes you wired, if you have enough of it."

Krystal decided to embrace their apparent morning liquid ritual and drank the coffee down until it was gone. She offered a smile and handed the mug back. "Maybe later, we can try this chocolate substance. It sounds like you both hold it in a measure of affection."

"If Chocolate was a woman," Falco said from behind Fox, "I would not only date her, but I would worship her as a goddess."

"And that's saying a lot," Fox chuckled. "If Katt Monroe heard you talk that way, she would probably try and turn herself into a candy bar, dude." Fox turned back to Krystal and smiled, taking the mug back and tossing it to Falco, who was standing in the doorway. "I was thinking we could go by Space Dynamics' and look over our future order. Falco's going to go with us, and they have really excellent combat simulators," He said, standing from the bed and approaching the group of clothes she bought the day before.

He picked out a cute little number, that included a blouse and skirt and brought it back to her bed, laying it over the covers. After that, he gave her a smile and stepped back out into the main section of the suite, closing the door behind himself, so she could get ready.

* * *

x- two hours later. -x 

Space Dynamics Co. LTD. was massive. The main building had old M-Class fighters and Arwings suspended from the ceiling, and the floor was marble. In the center of the room was a flap from a wing stabilizer, on display. The plaque beneath read, "_Part of an Arwing from Fox J. McCloud's fighter, used in the Lylat War, over Venom. This piece belonged to the Arwing, with which Fox McCloud used on an offensive against Andross Oikonni._" There was a plaque on the wall with Slippy's father's picture on it, and another with General Pepper's picture.

Falco placed a winged hand upon Krystal's shoulder and whispered, "They have the most awesome flight simulators here. It's like a free arcade. You wanna try it out, while Fox goes and does all the boring order form crap?"

"I certainly would," She whispered back, then turned to Fox and said, "I'm going to have Falco show me this combat simulator. If you enjoy shopping for fighters as much as I enjoyed shopping for clothes yesterday, be careful not to enjoy yourself _too_ much," She said playfully, flipping her skirt with her paw, before pivoting on her heel and beginning to follow Falco towards the simulation epi-plex, which was a massive 2 story building that could be reached via a hallway on the side of the lobby.

"You won't be able to handle me, anyhow," Falco said, shaking his head. "I'll go easy on you, but if you'd rather, we can go cooperative against the computer fighters. You wanna compete for kill score?" He asked, waggling his feathery eyebrows.

"Don't Judge me, because I'm a girl," She said with a grin of her own.

"Are you kidding? You've never seen Katt Monroe fly, or our old Arwing Instructor, Fara Phoenix, or Miyu Lynx, or her buddy Fay. All classy gals, all good pilots," He said, before adding, "But none of them can touch me, I'm just saying they're really good. And besides, I'm the only blue pilot in Lylat, so be careful you don't try and steal my style."

"Now, now Falco," Krystal chided playfully, "Don't judge a girl by her color." She batted at his shoulder with a grin then patted her rump and said, "I'll make sure I give you your moneys worth in that simulator. If you wanna go easy on me? Do it during the first round, but I won't hold back once I get used to where the controls are."

"You're on," Falco said, opening the door to the simulator room for her. Falco flashed his ID to the guy at the desk, who seemed absolutely floored to have a local celebrity in the building this morning, and handed them each a computer key card two a pair of simulator booths. Falco handed her one of the keys then grinned and boasted, "I'll show you, real soon, why my friends tolerate my ego." It was unlike him to explain his ego to anyone, but Krystal was new to the culture, to the team, to the Arwing. In this respect, he offered such an explanation, opening up the simulator for her.

It was shaped sort of like an egg. The top lifted, like a cockpit canopy, on hinges. The sleek layout of the simulator was as realistic as one could expect for the designer and manufacturer of the SFX and DFX Arwing. The illuminated panels and colorful buttons were offset by the holographic screen display that was designed into the top part of the simulator.

Krystal slid into the seat and Falco lowered the top half of the canopy over her. Inside, the cockpit top fluttered to life and it looked as though she was really sitting inside of a fighter, looking out the glass cover, at the world around her. She took a moment to find each control, making a mental note as to where each one was located. Falco, on the other paw, was climbing into the adjacent simulator machine. He knew Fox would join them soon enough and then he could pair them together and shoot'em both down without feeling guilty.

After a few minutes, a menu came up over the dash monitor, but an audio guide was able to explain everything. Falco set up the first board, putting them as a cooperative team, against 25 bogie's. His voice was heard over the speaker built into her dashboard.

"Remember, Krystal. We're going for score here. Shoot down as many as you can, I know you're a first timer at the controls of an Arwing, so I'll leave you enough targets to learn with. Then, I'll reset the board, and we'll go all out, to see who gets the most. Whenever Fox joins us, we'll pair off and it'll be you two against me. I won't go easy, either," He warned. She could tell he was wearing that cocky grin, from the way he was speaking. She sensed his ego and the incredibly confidence he felt at the controls of the Arwing Fighter. He felt truly at home.

The first round, Falco took his time, toying with targets by shooting the wings off his pray, before destroying them. Krystal took her time, getting intimate with the controls of the fighter, before chasing down the bogeys. With her telepathic powers, she would be able to fight off a living target better than a computer simulation, who's thought patterns and combat tactics were a secret. But she still managed to hold her own, completing the first round without taking more than two hits from the enemy.

"You're pretty good," Falco noted. "For a girl," He added, trying to flair up Krystal's competitive side. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not impressed or anything, I'm just saying you're not half bad for your average babe."

"Excuse ME?" Krystal said, astonished and yet giving in to his taunts, allowing her competitive nature to get stronger. "An average ...babe? I will certainly show you piloting, Mister Lombardi!" She cried in reply. It was obvious, by now, that the coffee from earlier that morning, was kicking in. She quickly drew up a repeat of the first round and called back at him, "You're on, bird! I'll show you that we ladies can easily keep up with the birdbrain _boys_, bring it on!"

Next: Chapter -5-: "Krystal Unleashed"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter -5-: "Krystal Unleashed"

**F**alco was racking up hits and Krystal knew she would lose. She finally darted her simulated Arwing behind his and opened fire. The gentle bucking of the simulator helped to make her rapid open fire more realistic. Laser shots glanced off the back of Falco's arwing, ripping one of his wing stabilizers clean from the fuselage, destroying his double laser weapon. That would give her the advantage. It wasn't cheating, it was just bringing him to her level with a handicap.

Falco, astonished and partially enraged, pulled a loop, attempting to come about behind her. She darted away, trying to stay defensive, with the aggressive Falcon attempting to strike her down. A message flashed across the screen that a new player had joined that particular game.

"They said they'll have me go over the contract once it's printed up," came the voice of Fox. "They told me you guys were here, so I thought I'd join until every thing's ready," He told them.

Fox came to Krystal's rescue, starting with the destruction Krystal initiated, and ripping Falco in half. Lombardi, who's craft was already damaged, couldn't withstand the laser fire much longer, and broke off of Krystal's tail, before Fox finished him off with a smart missile. He would have to wait 30 seconds to respawn, somewhere else on the board.

Fox then eased himself behind Krystal, directly on her tail. He mashed down the tip of his joystick, and on Krystal's side, the cockpit vibrated gently beneath her. She put her feet against the rudders, to keep her legs from quivering, due to the pounding of lasers against the hull of her craft, from the backside. Each scored hit dimly illuminated her cockpit in a flash of scarlet. She glanced at her ship's shield level and knew that she was close. If she didn't pull out of his cone of fire now, it would surely be the end. The lithe blue vixen cried out, pulling back in an attempt to free herself; a victim of him consistently hammering her from behind.

"This is all rather exciting," She called out, over her communicator. The ship zigged and zagged, attempting to lose Fox, from her backside. She noticed the rudders at her feet, pulsating beneath her toe claws each time she received Fox's assault. She double tapped the left rudder and to her surprise, the Arwing went into a tight barrel roll, causing several well placed laser shots to ricocheted off of the hull. She double tapped with her other foot, causing the same effect, in the other direction. From the swirl of the display in front of her, she could tell which way she was rotating.

But these pilots weren't droids. They weren't programs. They fight with their minds and she had the natural ability to counter their skill with her own abilities. She could sense that Falco was getting excited, watching the two vulpine from his vantage point. That must have meant he was closing in for the kill. She located his 'blip' on her scanner scope and pulled up in front of him. Fox was being to flirt y with his attacks to pay Falco any mind, and thus sandwiched the fox between herself aft and Falco's forward gun.

She then mashed the brakes, causing Fox to do the same. Falco, who almost always flew hard, into the fray with full Afterburners, collided with Fox from behind. Krystal punched her throttle and pulled up quick, just in time to see Falco's rear collision with Fox, cause the vulpine to explode. Krystal giggled with glee, seeing that the rear penetration of Falco's forward gun slamming into the rocket booster of Fox's Arwing also caused the avian to blow. Shrapnel littered the area, and she did a victory barrel roll, to celebrate her successful double scoring.

She was badly damaged and wouldn't survive against their respawned fighters, free of damage, but she could certainly give them a difficult time of finishing her off. The boys swooped in, opening fire, quick to forget about getting the biggest kill score on the enemy ships. They were both impressed and surprised and needed to return the favor. Krystal half-closed her eyes, keeping them open wide enough to see her screen in front of her, but allowing herself to fall into a light meditative trance. Falco instinctually formed up on Fox's wing, she could see a blurry image of what they saw, due to the proximity of the subject she was scanning. She continued the barrel roll maneuver, until the last possible second.

Just as they were upon her ship once more, she pulled a clever loop, getting around behind them. She began to open fire as quickly as she could, mashing down the missile trigger, trying to give them everything she had left. Fox hit his brakes, and she pulled up so as not to smack into him and destroy herself the way she'd set Falco up to do so, earlier. During the sudden maneuver, she lost her meditative trance, her instincts concentrating on avoiding a collision first and foremost. As soon as she passed over Fox's Arwing, he detonated a Nova Bomb, which destroyed both Falco and Krystal's fighters.

No sooner did a score count come up, the game ended. Someone outside the flight simulators had ended the round, leaving Fox still alive, but he was tied with Krystal's kill score. Falco, on the other hand, trailed behind by one single point.

"What?" The avian groaned, pushing the cockpit hatch open from the computer simulator. "Why did we stop, I wasn't finished! What gives?" He knew if he stayed in the game, he would have caught up, surpassed them and probably led Fox by a point or two. He didn't have the wing commanding leadership skills that Fox had, but Falco knew how to rack up kills, for sure.

Krystal opened her own canopy, as well as Fox, who was looking up at a raccoon with a pamphlet of papers. "Sir, are you ready to inspect your new craft?" He asked McCloud, who nodded, waving for Krystal and Falco to follow.

"I'm real impressed," Fox mused, as the trio followed the Raccoon down the hall, back towards the Lobby, across the shiny, plush grand entrance, and into an adjacent hallway, towards the Demo Room. "You tied us, you used a clever means of catching us both off guard. How did the combat flight make you feel?" he asked her.

"It was wonderful," She said, cheerfully. "It's the most exciting, exhilarating thing I've ever experienced. I'm in love with it, and it's a real turn on, for my mood. I feel like I really accomplished something back there," Krystal told him. "I want you to train me to be as good as you. I could tell you would have bested me, both of you. I may have gotten lucky, but only because we're in simulators that are side by side, so I was close enough to sense your thoughts with great detail. The further I am from a subject, the harder it is to know what they're going to do," She explained.

"Well that's kinda cheating," said Falco.

"That's kinda my way of matching your skill and level of experience," She replied. Even Falco couldn't argue with that. Everyone has their own strong points and weaknesses. Her strong point was being able to anticipate her foe, so long as they didn't attempt to hide their thoughts or cloud their minds with a strong emotion, the way Andross clouded himself with hate, bitterness, desire for revenge and other swirls of strong emotions.

She felt that if Andross didn't die at the paws of Fox McCloud, he would have died from heart failure in due time, from the bottled cluster of heavy emotions that stirred within his soul like a passionate stew of hatred. Andross was a very passionate man. He was passionate about his vengeance, he was passionate about his vendetta, he was passionate about the hatred for his enemies. He was passionate about his desire for Control. But Fox and Falco had open hearts and unguarded minds.

She was able to use her telepathy to attempt fighting against someone of their caliber. She was impressed with herself, and that was the bottom line. As far as the space combat, it felt wonderful. She wanted to compare it to winning a marathon race, in some ways, but had no experience in such matters to make a close enough comparison. The way the group would fly in formation against an enemy, the way they moved towards and against one another, it was freedom and it was passionate and emotional. Fox was trained to keep his combat emotions stored aside, so that he didn't lose sight of his target or the situation, but Krystal, on the other hand, embraced the emotional high from the simulated dog fight.

She turned to Falco, and asked, "What about you? How does flying make you feel? I noticed that you fly with your emotions and trust in your instincts and intuition more than you trust the sensors and equipment read outs."

"For me?" Falco chuckled. "It's like sex. It feels natural, it's emotional, especially when you're in control of the dogfight. A good dogfight is like a hot night of steamy lovin' with your girl. When things are going your way, you're on top of the world and making the rest of the universe stand still. When you're losing, it's like getting told that she's leaving you, then mentions she's pregnant and wants child support. It's just a huge feeling of frustration and stuff, down in your gut. Flying is the next best thing," He said, putting his winged hands out, as if to accent his words with simple hand gestures.

"What about you Fox?" Krystal asked, half intrigued by Falco's reply, but not able to make the same link, due to her lack of inexperience in the ways of mating. It was weird, being told that flying is, in many ways, like mating. She decided to see what Fox would say about it.

"Well," he started, placing a paw behind the nape of his neck, looking as though he were just put on the spot. "I don't know about it being like sex. I've only tried my paw at dating once and it didn't work out in the end. She was a military flight instructor and I'm a mercenary and all, but It is a lot like a family reunion."

"Huh? How so?" Falco quipped. "Some family reunion, them shooting at you, you trying to kill them. Sounds like a family reunion of fighting rednecks."

"No, it's just that," Fox shook his head and sighed, "See, Falco... It's like this. You're flying with your family, they're familiar to you and you have close ties to them. The bond is thick, like blood. You overcome hardships together, you survive together, you help one another out. It's familiar in your struggles with one another. Every time you defeat an enemy, it's like you bring success to the whole household. Every time I fly, I imagine that I'm one paw print closer to being besides my father. I feel like he flies with me, watches over me, and we go through our training routine. Like taking out the trash or doing the dishes, we go through our loops, we go through our barrel rolls."

Krystal was moved. He, of them all, spoke of something in which he had little experience, and yet he spoke of it, as if he knew it well. His family was in his heart. His household was his assembly of friends, and his experience in having a family came from his heart and his imagination. She was moved.

"And when I put my family in danger," Fox added, "I expect to make enough money to put food on the table, for them. If they help me keep a neat household, and take out the trash," He said, referring to keeping the entire system safe and neat, and free of threat, "We all enjoy the spoils and everyone benefits from it."

"Damn," Falco replied softly. "That's... got to be," he tilted his head, looking for the right word to say, to describe how he felt about Fox's tender and pure feelings on flight and combat, "the most... gayest thing I've ever heard in my life."

Krystal scowled at the avian, smacking him in the shoulder. "Be nice, you're all brothers and Fox loves you very much, like one!"

"OH geeze!" said Falco, shaking his head and shrugging off the whack of her paw. "I'm sure someone like Slippy would feel that flying is just getting the job done, and you only complete it if you come home in one piece, but flying for me, really is a big deal. But I wouldn't say it's like going to a family reunion, that's just weird, man."

Fox chuckled and shook his head. The hallway ended at a set of double doors. The raccoon opened them electronically, using a key card. Beyond them, a massive bay was waiting, with several shiny new Arwings sitting in the middle of the room, as well as the newest version of the Land Master Tank. There was a set of stands, that held different models of weapons, one of which was a large red rocket launching tube, with the Space Dynamics logo on the side. Falco walked right passed one of the new Arwings and picked the rocket launcher up from the stand.

"Now this is what I'd want if I had to run around on Sauria," He said with a wicked grin. Krystal placed a paw on the nose cone of one of the Arwings, passing it and inspecting the tank for a moment, before stopping in front of the gun stands. To Fox and Falco's amusement, she picked up one of the heaviest guns on display. The Gatling gun.

"For some reason, this weapon really says, 'woman in charge, back off.' you know?" She gave a grin, then eased it back onto the display stand, turning to Fox with a wink. "Shall we look over these fighters and this tank? I really like the sleek new design of this Arwing. It's sharper and looks more in charge than your old model," She replied, placing a paw against the nose cone of the nearest fighter, once more.

Fox nodded in agreement, stepping up besides the body. He put his paws on one of the complex new wing blaster assembles and quickly boosted himself upwards, vaulting to the top. He walked down the fuselage and knelt down to inspect the cockpit.

"I like it. You could easily get inside, without having to wait for the canopy manifold to release. It seems like it just pops right open so you can hop right inside, in a jiff," Fox claimed, eying the entire cockpit assembly. "and I like how flat the top is, in front of the cockpit. You don't feel like you might fall off, while you're standing up here. It feels solid."

The Raccoon grinned and added, "If you fly at a low enough air speed, I imagine you could have someone stand on the body. Could make for an interesting aerobatics display."

"Or if you wanted someone with a rocket launcher, standing on the outside, blasting enemies," Falco said with a grin. Little did he know that just such an ability would come in handy one day.

"Also," Continued the Raccoon, folding his paws, "We redesigned the hull with a very light coating that has several purposes. One, it's a spray on lining that makes it easier to keep the Arwing clean, just spray it with water, and it makes traction rubbery, when standing on it. It won't burn off in an atmosphere crossover, and because it's spray on, you won't have to worry about scratches and dents showing up, from normal wear and tear."

"Interesting. So," Fox mused, kneeling down and touching the surface of the fighter, with his palm, pushing his fingertips against the smooth and yet slightly rubbery protective coating. It did, in fact, make traction better, walking across the body of the plane. That would make getting into the fighter and cleaning it much easier. Slippy fell off an Arwing once, while trying to clean it, and knocked the wind out of himself, leaving a bruise on his shoulder. That probably wouldn't happen anymore with this model.

Fox grinned suddenly and turned to the raccoon. "Hey, can we try them out, personally? Falco and I have copies of our pilots license, but I can vouch for Krystal here, she... just left hers back at GreatFox," He said. He knew she was a pilot, she flew to Sauria from Cerinia, but she didn't have a Cornerian piloting license, which is something he'd have to take her to get, in the very near future, if he was going to train her with an Arwing.

"I... I guess, we can make an exception for StarFox. Afterall, we did pick up a military contract and go from a huge industrial business to a multi-planetary vehicle manufacturing empire, when you use our original Arwing Models against Venom 8 years ago. We certainly owe you, because you were one of the few pilots who believed in the Arwing," said the raccoon.

Fox shrugged. "Well, actually, my father believed in them. He used an M-Class against Venom in his day, but he loved the Arwing, and he turned his best friend, Peppy, onto the Arwing light fighter class ships. It's a good vessel, and with a few modifications, Slippy and I have taken the team across the surface of SOL, itself. I doubt we'll need to beat up these new models quite as badly, but if the first generation of Arwing can handle the test of a group of teenagers, I know your latest model will be a pleaser."

"So it's true? You guys really did fight a bio weapon on the photosphere of the sun?" The raccoon asked. "Using Arwings?"

"Yeah, we stayed just beneath the beginning of the chromosphere, and were lucky enough to keep ourselves over the occasional sunspots. It was about 9 thousand degrees, but it held up as long as we stayed as far above the surface as possible," Fox said.

"It freakin' sucked," Falco muttered. "the cooling system caused it to rain in my cockpit. Between the sweat and the tropical rain forest conditions, I felt like I was swimming. I think Slippy was taking a bath in his cockpit or something, he probably loved it."

Krystal's eyes went wide. "How did this bio weapon come to exist on this... Sol?"

"Easy, Andross put it there," The raccoon answered. "Everybody knows that. About 8 or 9 years ago. Fox and the team ripped it in half, which caused an inward implosion of hydrogen, a nuclear reaction. But that's pretty normal, inside that thing, I understand. It's not like you could have a small nuclear blast on a ball of fire that big, and really hurt it."

Krystal turned to Fox, her eyes large as saucers. "Ours collapsed into a white dwarf. It didn't swell, it didn't become a red giant, it just released all of it's fuel from the center, away from Cerinia, then collapsed into a white dwarf. We were freezing, and when I'd gotten no further than the edge of our system, it collapsed in on itself, into a massive black hole. It was... awful." Her eyes lowered to the floor.

Fox, not exactly knowing how to explain to the raccoon, that she was an alien to Lylat, just gave him a sheepish smile, then put his paw around her head, drawing her face into his neck for a moment. He gently guided her away from the Raccoon salesman and begin to talk to her privately.

Falco gave a shrug, then pointed to one of the Arwings closest to the tank. "So, show me how the controls are different. I heard they used a two-handed flight yoke, that comes up from either side of your dash, instead of a stick or a traditional yoke."

"That, uerm," The raccoon glanced over his shoulder at Fox and Krystal then continued to speak to Falco, "... is correct. We have a new way of flying these, using a flight bar. You grip a stick on either side, like a ski sled. It allows the pilot to make pin point maneuvers or subtle changes, without any error. It's quick, more efficient, and my favorite new addition is the holographic message bar across the top of the canopy."

"Excuse me? Holographic message bar?" Falco repeated.

"Yes!" The raccoon said, reaching to adjust his tie with a grin. "Emitters cause a bar to open up just above your eyes, showing your entire team. That way, you don't have to look down at your dashboard. If you're in the middle of a fight, you can see through the message bar, it isn't intrusive in any way!"

While the two chatted, Fox and Krystal stood in the corner of the room, her looking over his shoulder at the line of fighters and tank, the displayed weapons and the two chatting men. She shifted her eyes back at Fox and gave a soft pouting look. "I'm sure, more than anything, that it was Andross that was responsible."

"I agree with you. He's a slimy hearted man. Don't let yourself get down over this. I don't want to see you beating yourself up over something he caused," Fox said, shaking his head. Krystal sighed softly. She was so beautiful. Her eyes were shimmering from being on the verge of tears. Fox felt so guilty, not knowing what to do. He wished he could just get up the nerve to hug her. But on that thought, Krystal sensed that it would be okay to initiate it. She leaned in and eased her arms around his waist, hiding her face into his chest. It was the first actual physical contact they ever had. He blushed fiercely, but after a moment, swallowed his nerves and wrapped his arms around her.

"Fox?"

"Yes Krys?"

"This is the first time I've been alone in my life," She whispered.

"As of the day I found you on Sauria, your days of loneliness are over. You have friends with StarFox. I think we'll be friends for a long time." Fox's words made her smile. She lifted her head from his chest, leaned her muzzle up and placed a soft kiss against his cheek. This time, he didn't blush, he just offered a tender smile. It was the least he could do, was offer her a place to stay. She was quite a capable pilot and anyone who was telepathic would make an invaluable team member. His promise would stand if she could help them find Andrew.

x-

* * *

**P**anther Caruso rolled the lush green stem between his padded fingertips. The velvety crimson petals of the Rose brushed against the feline's nose, causing the hairs of the back of his neck to stand on end. Something about the red rose that held so much meaning for him. He cast his paw outwards, the thorns of the stem catching the cloth of a shirt on the fallen body before him. It caused the rose to stand upwards, perfectly. 

Wolf O'Donnell, standing behind Panther, folded his arms, narrowing his singular gaze. "I thought you gave these jobs up? How well does this one pay?" He asked.

"Mm, this is one I could not refuse. The pay was too good, the bounty was someone I couldn't stand and things in StarWolf are a touch slow at the moment," replied the large black cat, turning to Wolf and adding, "No offense, boss."

"Hmp. None taken. I've got my own side project on Sargasso, just remember you're a pilot before an assassin, while you're on this team," Wolf said, glancing down at the body. The political figure who was supposed to be trying to take over on Venom was a quick hit by one of the members of the Oikonni Empire, as a sign that Andrew had escaped from prison, against the democracy movement that wanted to overtake Venom, one nation of the planet at a time.

"I want to collect from this miserable whelp, Andrew Oikonni. Is he good for his word?" Panther asked, turning to look at Wolf. O'Donnell kept his gaze on the body. A soft whirring sound of the bionic implant told Panther that he was zooming in, to scan the body for any important belongings. The heart was stopped, the pockets were empty, except a simple ID card. Wolf's right ear flickered, and he sneered softly.

"Andrew will have the money. He was left a great deal of it, which belonged to his uncle. But he's an idiot. Right now, he's on the run, so he's probably hiding from everyone. How the hell did he contact you so fast after his escape from prison?"

Panther grinned, a soft snarl at the back of his throat, leading into his next statement, "The silly ape retrieved the number of my agent from one of his contacts. I think, if we follow the mercenaries that are after Andrew, we should be sure to locate him. If we sink these fools, it's less competition for ourselves as a team, and we'll put Andrew on the spot and force him to pay more than he originally intended."

Wolf simply shook his head. "You talk to much, Panther. Let's go. Hellcat Alpha will have found him if we don't hurry. Those idiots have a lot of pilots. C'mon," He said, waving for Panther to follow him back towards the pair of Wolfens sitting in wait.

Panther knelt down upon one knee, his eyes tracing the delicate curvature of the Rose. His eyes raked over the flower,laying upon the body of the dead Prime Minister Elect. "So long, my pray." He stood up once more, catching up with Wolf. "We should stop by Corneria. Someone there will know something about where we can find Hellcat Alpha. It's probably on the news."

"Corneria," Wolf huffed, with a roll of that singular gaze. "You just want to go there because of that stupid little cafe you like so much."

"Mm, now that you mention it, we should stop there too. Nothing like a first class meal after a job," said Panther, in reference to the body they left in the middle of a quiet road, at the edge of the Venomian Capitol City, Androufu. It was the Venom pronunciation of Andross, who still had quite a bit of clout, regardless of his missing status, and the war being over for nearly a decade now. From what Panther had heard, Andrew was going to try and re-amass the army of Venom and start an Assault against Corneria, but he was still in the planning stage and it would take at least a year or two to get the troops ready, get new recruits trained and get the entire thing off of the ground.

Next: Chapter -6- (Who is...?) _The Mysterious Krystal..._


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Okay, everyone who tripped out about Krystal's age? Rejoice! I was feeling clever and managed to make EVERYONE happy. She's 16 AND 19 at the SAME time. How did I manage that? How could I possibly have come to the conclusion that BOTH sides who argue about her age are right at the same time? Well duh, she claims to be 16, from Cerinia, but when Fox learns that Cerinia takes a lot longer to make a full revolution around the sun than Corneria takes to get around Sol, he realizes that a Cerinia year lasts longer. So, in Cornerian years (the time which Fox judges/guages his OWN age), she's almost 20. Yes, I'm so freakin' clever. So, Fox discovers, to his own relief, that she's legal by Cornerian standards. Now no one can gripe about her age anymore, and ALL Krystal fans should be able to buy into that theory ;)

I played through StarFox Assault again. Panther seems to know just who she is, because he says something like, "ah, finally, the lovely Krystal." Leon says something like, "not you again" or something, and we see that the game BEGINS with Andrew having taken over Andross' empire. Krystal seems like a self confident girl, who wants nothing more than to prove herself to Fox. She tries by saying, "Finally a ground mission with you!" or whatever, on Sauria and she's on the ground again on the Aparoid home planet. So, because this started out as a story about Krystal, between the end of ADVENTURES and beginning of ASSAULT, I'll simply detail everything that happens.

I came across this great Rare picture of Fox carrying an unconscious Krystal, but it wasn't used as an advertisement for the game, in the end. But it was on the net. It gave me an idea for this chapter, leading into the next one. It will help Fox and Krystal's friendship grow and they'll be able to trust one another more quickly than some people who may or may not date for only a year. Also, we'll see a dash of Slippy and Beltino soon. As you all recall, Slippy exclaims, "Dad, you never told me you worked for such and such!" At one point, early into ASSAULT. So, we'll find out that Beltino is involved in secret technology work for Corneria, since he sounds so awkward about Slippy pointing out that his work for Corneria was previously unknown. But don't worry, I plan to stay true to Krystal being the main character, here. This is a learning experience about her life between games, and a little hint at the history about her life, prior to entering Lylat.

I know a lot of you hate crazy cliffhangers, wondering if someone died, but since this is a prequil to ASSAULT, I promise you that Fox and Krystal live. It would make no sense if they didn't ;) ...But for those of you who were curious about MeteoLand Asteroid ThemePark (SF: Snes), you may be delighted to see a little bit of it detailed and explored in the next chapter.

Sorry I'm not updating as much as I used to, I've got two publishers (hopeful yay! Cross your fingers!) asking me to finish two of my nearly completed manuscripts that are full length Fiction Novels (nonstarfox), so I've been trying to do that, plus I'm going through a job change and move at the same time, XD

-ken (kit)

Sorry I made the Author's Note so long this time, it won't happen again -.-;;;

* * *

Chapter -6- "(Who is...?) The Mysterious Krystal." 

The Raccoon took the pen back from Fox and smiled brightly. "I'm glad we were able to resolve our business so quickly. It's always a pleasure to be associated with StarFox, Mister McCloud. Is there anything else we can do for you today, Sir?"

Fox chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I think that'll be good enough. I'm having Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare pick up the order tomorrow, but I think we're good to go," He said.

"I'll definitely make note of that, sir, I'll make sure that Mister Toad and Mister Hare are as equally pleased. Please, enjoy the rest of your stay, here on Corneria." The Raccoon shook Fox, Falco and Krystal's paws one last time before the mercenary triumvirate turned to leave. Fox held the door for Krystal and Falco, and she passed through it, stopping to simply take in the lovely view of metallic mountains.

Outside, Fox put his right paw into his pocket, glancing at the watch on his left wrist. Falco stretched and turned the the two foxes with a shrug. "Well, I hate to run, but the last time I was on Corneria, I was broke. So I'm going to go and see what kind of stuff I can get into. I'll catch you guys later, eh?" The Avian casually gestured in a half-wave with a few feathery fingers then crossed the street, hailing a cab.

Krystal turned to Fox and placed her paws on his wrist. "I suppose Falco won't be joining us to look for Andrew," She mused. "It seems as though it's the last thought on his mind."

"I'm sure we could reach him by communicator if we needed him," Fox said. He'd just spent a few years without Falco. The avian's help was appreciated but it wasn't a dire straights situation. "Where should we begin."

"I don't know his thought pattern, or where to look, unless I either meet him or am very close by his location. Let me see if we can't find out something about him first, then start there?" She asked. Her idea warranted a nod from Fox and the two began to walk into the downtown area.

x-

* * *

"What'd'ya mean I'm not allowed in your cafe?" Wolf sneered. He thumbed the white band of his bionic implant and took it off of his head, the large red scar that covered his eye, just above and just below the pupil, which had been inked in red with a covering tattoo, showed a completely empty socket. He'd put glass eye pieces in from time to time, but they always messed with the direct visual inputs with his brain, so he left them out when wearing the implant. He took out his old black patch and covered his eye with it. "Do you know who I am now?" O'Donnell demanded with a smirk. 

"I do, and _that_ is the reason we don't want you here," The cafe owner said. Meanwhile, Panther and Leon had gone to a table without any problems. Wolf was just that well known and that well disliked. Wolf narrowed his gaze, reaching into his vest, for his fake ID card, but the gesture looked more like he was reaching for a gun in his inside-vest pocket.

The Cafe owner held his paws up quickly, "I don't want any trouble. Just promise me you'll leave after you eat!"

"Fine." Wolf smirked, leaving his fake ID in the pocket, his paw still half hidden in his vest and simply walked through the cafe, towards the table where Leon and Panther was. He looked amused, as if it was oddly funny that the cafe owner simply assumed he would pull out a gun. He didn't need to, he had an entire 'abandoned' space station full of men. He could have called Ruffian at any time and had thirty men come in and level this place if that's what he really wanted.

"What took you so long?" Leon asked, his scratchy voice making Wolf shutter. Leon was once the aloof, smooth talking chameleon assassin, but since being shot down over Venom in his Wolfen2, the totally redesigned Wolfen that Andross had designed, Leon Powalski's voice had been altered. Wolf remembered pulling the man from his cockpit, his throat crushed from the impact. It was an amazing trachea surgery at a Venom medical station that was able to save Leon's life, but his smooth, deep voice would never be the same.

Up to that point, Leon was wearing an eye implant, due to being shot down over Fortuna and Bolse Defense Station. But with the new technology, they were able to repair his scratched cornea and he had his sight restored. Wolf wasn't so lucky. They would have to clone a new eye to give him his original sight back, but he'd grown so completely Dependant on his bionic eye patch, he refused to get his normal eye sight back. Besides, it made him who he was.

It made him who the Cafe owner was afraid of, to be sure. O'Donnell sat down in the corner booth, looking to his best friend, to the new team mate. Panther was a good pilot and quite clever when it came to a stealthy assassination but he was a weird dimension to the chemistry of StarWolf. He was an outrageous flirt, never took contracts against females, and had a way of losing himself around them from time to time. Wolf was worried, when the time came, if Panther would be able to help them shoot down a mercenary group like IceVixen. It probably wouldn't happen, but nothing was impossible.

"So why do you like this piece of crap so much?" Wolf muttered in an inquiry. He didn't mean to insult the cafe by calling it a piece of crap, but he couldn't help hate something until it changed his mind otherwise. Panther simply smiled. Wolf didn't seem to understand, but quickly realized that Panther was practically ignoring the team leader, due to the incoming waitress. She was a pretty little thing and Panther always tipped her well. "I see. Is she the reason you like it?"

Again Panther ignored Wolf's question. "I'll have the usual, Tuits."

Leon's turn. "Nothing for me, this wasn't even my idea."

Wolf smirked. "Steak. Medium rare at the center, well done across the rest. Think you can handle that?" The lady nodded, taking their menus and left. "Panther... Really now. Tuits?"

"That's her name," Panther mused, over an unintentional snarl, purring out her name, to repeat it, as he watched the lithe little feline's backside upon her departure towards the kitchen. "She's quite a woman, and makes the best tuna-chicken club sandwich. You really should try one."

"Steak. I eat Steak. I eat it with my eggs, I eat it with a side of potatoes," Wolf said. He ate chicken, heck he even ate turkey from time to time. But steak, if made properly, was his favorite. He was quite good at making it himself, but preferred to eat fine steak when and where he could find it. When in public, he always tried to eat something meaty. No sandwich, no major side orders, none of that crap. Just a slab of porterhouse steak, a well cooked baked potato, and he was a happy lupine. Red meat, it fueled his violence, it fueled his sex drive, it fueled his personality.

"Suit yourself Boss," Panther said, leaning back in the booth seat's cushion. "They have a wonderful menu selection here. But their steak is really quite good. I've had it rather tender, and I've had it rather raw, either is quite good. I suppose it depends on one's mood for that day, hm?"

"Panther," Wolf started. But Leon finished the sentence, with exactly what Wolf would have said.

"...Shut up." Leon smirked, glancing at Wolf, then turning to Panther, once more with a shrug.

Outside the window was a collection of metal tables and chairs that were seated in the shade of umbrellas. A vulpine, that was only too recognized, sat down at one chair, with the azure furred Krystal at his side. The two spoke for a moment, amongst themselves, before placing an order with an approaching waiter.

"Mm, who is that little one?" Panther mused to himself.

Leon slapped the top of his head, "I don't know, but the man is Fox McCloud. I suppose I should go out there and put a knife in his back. This is ironic timing."

"Yeah," Wolf said, shaking his head. "Leave him alone. You remember, I'm the one who's going to tan his hide, not you Leon. Me."

"Psht, whatever."

"Fine," Wolf said to the chameleon. "Just remember when I shoot him down, who it was that caused it to happen. Give it time. For now, he doesn't know about Sargasso, so I say we let him alone for the moment.

"And who is that blue and white vision of loveliness?" Panther said, his eyes drinking in the little blue vixen outside. "I must learn more about her," He mused to himself.

"Can they see us, in here?" Leon asked Panther.

"No, it's tinted on the outside," Panther replied. "We can see them but they cannot see us. Fox McCloud, hm? Wonder what a high profile man like that is doing out of his ... region?" Panther wondered aloud. "But that woman, I must know more about her," Panther said quietly. "Perhaps in the future, no?"

"Whatever. Do you think they're looking for Andrew, too?" Wolf sneered quietly. "This will get complicated, having more people in the picture. I don't want to have a run in with them, we don't have time for it. Catching Andrew means getting Panther paid, and that means we all collect. Fox and his silly vixen can wait."

"I would love to get to know his silly vixen better," Panther jested, playfully. The trio continued their meaningless squabbles until the food came. On the other side of the window, Fox and Krystal spoke softly, enjoying the conversation with one another. He was beginning to warm up to having a female around but after only a few days, he was still quick to have a loss for words.

Fox paused the conversation when the waiting staff member returned with drinks, placing them on the table. Once they left, Fox picked up her drink, and began to explain what she was about to try for the first time.

"See," he said, turning the glass about, letting the sunlight shimmer through it, casting a delicate refraction onto the table. "This is made out of pure mangoes. they squeeze the juice with guava, add kiwi and freshly crushed strawberries and you have a blend we call, 'tropical fruit punch'." He handed the glass to Krystal. She took a sip then looked up at him, continuing to drink it, with an approving twinkle in her eyes.

Fox tilted his head, continuing the conversation from a few moments ago. "Most people on Corneria are vegetarians. Over 74 of the planet refuses to eat Meat. It's not taboo, or anything. But it's slightly more popular than a simple trend. Many hares thought Peppy was an idiot for flying with my father. Only 80 years ago, there was still a movement going on between carnivores and herbivores. Peppy saw dad for the man he was, and James saw Peppy for the pilot he was. I don't eat meat around Peppy, it kinda makes him feel awkward and sick to the stomach."

"We didn't have a mixed species on Cerinia," Krystal said, after placing the half-full glass upon the table. "That is delicious by the way. Anyhow, as I was saying, everyone ate meat unless they wanted to make the choice otherwise. Peppy seems like a very charming old man, I have a lot of respect for him, from what I've seen. So what about Slippy and Falco?"

"Well, Falco eats meat," Fox said with a chuckle. "Slippy, you know..." the vulpine trailed off and shrugged. "I've known him since 4th grade. Mom passed when I was in 3rd grade and Slippy was the first guy to help me feel like I have a friend again, after all that crap. And yet, I couldn't tell you what he likes to eat. We had to shower as a group in middle school and high school, but amphiboids take short cryo-bathes, so when it came to eating or showering, I couldn't begin to tell you where Slippy starts and ends."

"But another wonderful friend of yours," Krystal said in thoughtful tones. Fox nodded in agreeance and picked up an appetizer bread roll. "So what about bread?"

"I've not heard of it," She noted with a slight shrug.

"You didn't take dough and yeast and make bread with it?" Fox looked astonished.

"Yeast starches are bad for your body, aren't they? They produce sugars that your body can't digest?" She asked.

"Yeah, and if you eat a ton of it, bread will fatten you right up. Still," He said, using a knife to cut the bread roll into two halves, then buttered the center, putting them back together and handing it to her. "Bread has many good eating uses. I like to put a bunch of stuff between it, sandwich it together and stuff like that. Sometimes I like to shovel noodles and stuff onto a piece of bread, eat it that way. See if you like it," He urged.

Krystal tried it, finding it delightful. It wasn't too sweet but it was far from bland. The butter was even better, but the bread roll was rather delicious. She took another bite and grinned. "I love Cornerian Food. We have many similar things but the Cornerian delicacies have me quite addicted. I love the food, the clothes, I really enjoy the view of these buildings. These man-made marvels are nothing short of stunning."

"You get used to it," Fox said with a chuckle. "So, after lunch, where do you want to start looking for Andrew?" He asked her.

"No need," She explained. "I don't know who, how or why, but there's a group inside the Cafe that already figured out that, all they needs must do is find HellCat Alpha, which should be easy, they'll be on the news, covering the Andrew prison escape story, then once they find HellCat Alpha, they can stop them, rescue Andrew Oikonni and negotiate something with him."

Fox's eyes went wide. "There's a group inside that wants to stop HellCat Alpha, but at first, follow the group to Andrew, then fight them off and release Andrew?"

"I feel that is their intention. Once we get out and about, I'll possibly be able to pick up this Andrew Oikonni. But I'm afraid, if he's anything like his uncle, he's already manufactured a way to keep me from using telepathy on him," She explained.

"How is that possible? Andross made a machine that caused your telepathy to be useless against him?" Asked Fox.

Krystal shook her head, then shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure. He could have simply had clouded, emotionless thoughts, but that doesn't seem to act the same way. Everything he does, seems like it's passionately driven by vengeance and anger. I'm just not sure. I'll most likely never know," She said, then added, "Is this Andrew as deceitful and powerful as his Uncle was?"

Fox simply grinned. "He's a total idiot. The thing is, all the people who were obsessed with Andross may follow Andrew into another War against Corneria. I don't wanna think about that," Fox mused, glancing up at a building across the block, down the road, which towered high into the air. There was a massive screen built into the side of the building, and while he couldn't hear the newscast audio, he could see that it was something about peace negotiations already beginning with council leaders of Venom, speaking on behalf of the Oikonni Empire. The thought caused his grin to turn to a frown.

"Worried about war?" She asked.

"Are things this bad, where you're from?" He asked in reply.

"I'll be bluntly honest. There's no one left to cause war, now." Her words caused Fox to shut his mouth quickly, looking a bit embarrassed. She reached her paw out and lifted his muzzle, so that his eyes met hers and she offered a grim smile. "There will always be war. Everywhere. It's the way of the overly opinionated, trying to assert themselves on other overly opinionated people, or the way for a group to stand up for their rights against an oppressor. Sometimes it's about avenging someone, and often, it's about religious beliefs. My people, as Telepaths, never went to war with one another. And about two hundred years ago, were very aggressive towards a neighboring race who sought to lie and steal to take resources from us. We were foolish," She mused softly. "Our people fought them until their race was extinct. That was the catalyst for our desire for peace. We felt guilty and responsible for ending a race. We were so horribly offended by liars and manipulators, which we could see right through."

Fox looked a bit shocked. "What happened? Two hundred years ago was a long time, I take it that this is something you learned in history class at school?"

"Quite so," Krystal said, continuing her story as asked, "while their people were a bad lot, we had no right to fight them until they were gone. We didn't intend to annihilate an entire race. It's where we began to develop our modern day technology, and now we look back with a new philosophy, that we should fight to defend but after a certain point, any enemy can learn their lesson, as a whole. We should have stopped at some point and helped them to rebuild. They were our only neighbors, the next planet over. Times changed and our culture became bent on peace. That's why we were so willing to help Andross, who admitted to being a failed warlord. He said he'd changed his ways for the better," he paused then looked down.

"Go on," Fox baded her gently.

Krystal looked back up, but kept her eyes shut for a moment. "He told us, that he was the last of his race, and all his people lost a great war, which began over the death of a woman he loved. He promised to help us with our energy consumption and helped our technology departments, but in return, he wanted help in resources to rebuild his broken body, so he could return to Lylat. Most of us took such pity on him only because it was a similar story to our own, and generations later, we still felt guilty about what our ancestors had done to their neighboring race. It was like trying to repent for the sins of our forefathers." Finally her eyes fluttered open once more and she whispered. "Guilt is a powerful emotion."

"And you think he took advantage of your people's kindness and caused what happened to Cerinia?" Fox inquired with a polite, reverent tone.

"It's very possible," She sighed. "I just want answers. One of our religious sects spelled it out, claiming that our past misguided ways of war would lead to our eventual demise, in the future. Maybe that's what happened, but I'm not devoutly devoted to that particular line of faith. I have my own faction, believing in something else. But after a catastrophe of biblical proportions, I have to wonder." She frowned. She suddenly didn't want to talk about the end of Cerinia anymore.

Fox empathetically picked up on her demeanor and said, "So this desire to find Andrew and put him on the spot about Andross, you think we'll find him?"

"I won't let you down, Fox. I think I could learn to be a good addition to your team, I would like to think my abilities will prove me a worthy woman," She said.

"Krystal," Fox protested. "I already think you're a great person. I saw those Krazooa spirit tests, I know I was only finishing what you started and I know you had to be quite witty and intelligent to get as far into them as you had. If they were anything like I saw in them, they were wild," He said to her, remembering the test of fear and some of the other wild tests that challenged his mind, his heart and his soul.

"Fox, let me do this for your team. Let me earn it, don't just put your faith in someone who may not be good enough to achieve what your team did in the past, if the time comes for it to happen again," She said.

"Krystal, I'm a good judge of character. I know talent when I see it. Slippy for example," He said, glancing up at the waiter who was returning with their food. Once the waiter left, Fox continued, "He may not be the most academic man, but he's certainly the most mechanical. And when it comes to flying a fighter, he may not be as good as Falco, myself or Peppy in his hay-day, but Slippy is better than 85 of the academy graduates," Fox explained.

"He's really a good pilot?" she asked. "He doubts himself then. I thought he might not be all that good, because he doesn't seem to think he's all that good."

"Do you know why Corneria needed our help in fighting the Lylat War?" Fox asked with a chuckle. "Because we had four ace pilots. Just think, if every Cornerian pilot was an exceptional ace fighter, they wouldn't have needed us. I'm not saying they're morons in the cockpit, but my group was some of the best pilots, assembled into a group. Sure, there are Cornerian pilots who blow Slippy out of the water, but they're the wing commander of a group of pilots who are good at getting shot down. My team was always top notch in my book. And Falco sure can't rebuild an engine in a mere 6 hours. Slippy has a lot of talent in his hands."

Krystal smiled softly, picking up the utensils from the table, giving a sidelong glance to Fox. "You really think highly of your team, don't you?"

"Trust me, I wouldn't have survived on Sauria without my team. Slippy built a translator, added a coded program to your staff that allowed me to holographically sustain the image of a sharpclaw, powered by the recharged cell of your staff," Fox said.

"He was able to make use of the technology of my people? How long did it take him to figure out how to do that? Did you bring it to him personally?" She asked.

"No, he studied it from the GreatFox. He never laid his hand on it. Like I said, he's talented. My whole team has more than one use, and a whole lot of talent. But I can assure you of this," He said, unfolding a napkin and taking out a fork and knife. "I don't know of any telepathic pilots on any other mercenary team."

"Just let me prove this all to myself, and to you," She said with a grin. She was going to stay confident. But first, she had to learn a bit about Cornerian cuisine.

x-

* * *

hours later... 

Pigma used to be the engineer of StarWolf. He was the first mechanical pilot for the original StarFox and without him, repairing a Wolfen wasn't as easy as it used to be. But Wolf was clever on his own merit. This time, when the faint blip happened on his scope, he was ready, by video recording the sensor read out.

When it finally happened again, he pulled up an extra monitor on the dash and reviewed the footage. He slowed it down just as the little red dot fluttered on the scope then disappeared again. His lips curled in a snarl and he nodded decisively, opening a channel to Panther and Leon.

Wolf spoke into the internal dashboard Mic on his communicator panel, "I think we're being followed by a ship using a radar jammer. Leon, head back and make sure we're not being followed. Panther and I will go after Hellcat Alpha and see if we can't put them out of business. Meet up with us when you can, or meet us at Sargasso, later."

The scratching chameleon's voice replied, "It will be my pleasure. I'll make sure the prey doesn't have a chance to fight back."

"I thought your species hid from danger?" Panther said, teasingly.

"Hey," Wolf snapped. "Leon is nothing like the rest of his species. He hides only to ambush. Now, let's get a move on, these Hellcat Alpha pilots aren't going to be easy for just two of us, so I want to get in quick, get the drop on them and hit them hard, before they can get their shields powered up." Wolf and Panther's ships made a sudden time space jump, leaving the immediate area, and appearing beyond the reach of the sensor scope, to join up with Hellcat Alpha, from behind.

Leon, on the other hand, stayed in the area, powering down his ship, letting it float. A black tarp erupted from a compartment above the engine casing, which covered his Wolfen completely. The way it was threaded, one could see out, but it reflected light in a way that made it difficult to see, looking down on the object. Because of the elastic-like qualities sewn into the hem of the tarp, it quickly snapped about his craft, covering it completely. It was pitch black in color and made the Wolfen nearly impossible to see from a distance.

x-

* * *

"They vanished off my scope," Fox said with a frown. In good faith, Space Dynamics had allowed them to take one Arwing, before a first payment. The collateral was their reputation as heroes. Krystal, on the other hand, had to fly her shuttle. She glanced down at the readout on her control panel and frowned. 

"I don't see them, but someone's out there. I can feel it. Their heart is racing in anticipation," She said over the radio.

"Is it an ambush?" Fox asked, as they flew besides one another.

Krystal paused then said, "It's only one pilot. I can feel that he's intentionally hiding from us, but I can't sense much more than that, at this distance from him. I cannot ascertain as to his identity. But his feelings towards us are threatening."

"Let's find him, then. He might have answers, about this counter operation to find Andrew Oikonni," Fox said, speeding up his craft. Krystal raised the throttle bar under her left paw, keeping up with Fox. He knew he couldn't punch his accelerator, because her shuttle couldn't keep up with an Arwing, just like an Arwing couldn't outrun the top speed of a Wolfen fighter. He wasn't even sure why his mind just made such a comparison, he'd not seen a Wolfen fighter in 8 years.

"I recognize his thought patterns from the Cafe, we're definitely on the right track," She said.

"How far away is he, do you think?" Fox asked.

"He's pretty far off. We were at the edge of sensor's reach, let's just stay slow and cautious. I'll be able to sense when we're getting close to him," She replied.

"All right," Fox said, shifting his weight in the cockpit seat. It was more comfortable than the old style of Arwing and part of him wanted to make conversation with Krystal. He knew it was a crappy time for it, and he was usually quiet during missions, because he liked to stay serious but something about her really put him off guard. "So, I had Slippy downloading your computer logs from your shuttle, and decrypting them into a file format that our computer system can understand," he said.

"Oh? So he found a way to make our hardware communicate?" She asked.

"Yeah. He said it wasn't too difficult, it's all static binary, when you get down to it, but he said he was able to get a ton of cool information about Cerinia. It's a really interesting system," Fox said, doing a bit of math in his head before announcing, "You know, Corneria revolves a full orbital pattern around SOL faster than your planet went around it's sun."

"Which means a year takes longer for us to achieve," Krystal said, following what he meant in a way.

"Right, so by Cornerian standards, you're not 16," Fox said, still trying to do the math in his head. He needed something to write on, to get the number accurate. He drew up a calculation device on his dashboard and punched in a few numbers, then did the counter math, trying to round decimals, so that he didn't get too lost. "You are, by Cornerian year revolutions, 19, going on 20 years old. I'm not sure to the day, but someone better at math could sit down and verify it."

Krystal smiled slightly. She could tell, his mind was at ease and seemed comfortable with this math, and she had to wonder why. "Something you want to tell me, Fox?"

"Oh, nothing really. It's a silly, complicated notion is all," He replied, double checking his math the same way and smiling at the result. She was old enough to date, after all. There was no way he was going to put a 16 year old on the StarFox team. The death of a minor would have caused a great deal of problems and pain, as well as guilt, but she was old enough to date, old enough to fly, and would soon be old enough to even buy alcohol. That meant he was only 6 and a half years older than her, instead of 10. A number he was also more comfortable with. But she wanted an explanation and so he finally said, "You're old enough to be considered an adult, that's a relief."

"Why is that Fox? Can't date children?" She asked jokingly.

"I, er," Fox suddenly held his breath. It was awkward and he didn't want to touch that subject like this. "I mean, you're old enough to fly for StarFox."

Krystal could sense how uncomfortable he was with her joke and added, "I told you, I'll earn my place on StarFox. It's only fair. I want to be judged on my merit so I know if I'll be a valuable asset or if I'll only hold you back," She explained.

"Well," Fox paused then had an idea of how to word things, "You'll be plenty old enough to take the license test and get your certified piloting license. Always a plus," He laughed, pensively.

"Yes, I suppose you're right," She said. Then she suddenly cleared her throat, her tone growing serious. "He's close. I can't see him, does he have a cloaking device? I can sense him, but all I can tell you is that he's very close."

"No, fighters are generally too small for cloaking devices. Only Andross had figured out a way to keep a cloaking manifold well powered and a cooling device that was small enough to fit in an engine casing. No one salvaged that technology since he disappeared after the war," Fox explained, then said, "It could be some sort of stealth that fools sensors the way stealth normally fools radar. I don't see anything out there, though."

Krystal closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could. Finally, she felt confident enough to make a guess and pointed 45 degrees to the port. "There, on the left. I don't see him, but I think he can see us fine. He's at the edge of the asteroid belt."

"It's going to be difficult. If we come about, we'll put the asteroids directly behind him, and maybe we can spot him against the gray and brown rocks. I don't know," Fox paused with a frown. The only thing on his scope now, was little gray dots and a large blue circle at the edge of the sensor scope, that represented the old, abandoned amusement park built on the largest rock in the center of Meteo, that Andross half-converted to a base during the Lylat War.

Krystal opened her communication frequency to the all-channel setting. "I know you're out there. I may not be able to see you, but I know where you are," She said, trying to scare the fighter out of hiding.

"Maybe Panther was right," Leon said to himself. "There is something about that girl. Strange. There's no way she could have seen through my disguise, it's impossible." He took a moment to think about it, seeing the Arwing and Shuttle getting closer. If they knew where he was, his ambush attack wouldn't work. Fox would shoot him down all over again, and he didn't want that to happen. He finally mashed down the button that retracted the tarp and he quickly booted up his tactical computer and powered up his engines, turning about and afterburning into the asteroid cluster.

Fox blinked twice, "It's a Wolfen! And he's moving faster than your shuttle can go and possibly faster than this Arwing can go, c'mon, let's follow him, he can't run forever!" The shuttle and Arwing began a pursuit, heading into the Asteroids, looking for the retreating vessel.

Leon opened a secured channel back to Wolf and Panther, "McCloud's little blue friend knew where I was. She's got some sort of abilities, to have been able to see through my disguise. I'm going to try and lose them, then I'll meet up with you guys later."

Wolf's reply, over the radio transmission, was quite simple. "Do yourself a favor. Shoot her down and bolt. Don't let Fox know it was you, just shoot her down and leave. He'll try and save her, I know he will. Don't let them know your identity, it'll lead him back to us. He knows lots of mercenaries try to build clones of the Wolfen fighters, if we're lucky you can ditch him in the asteroid belt or something."

Panther's voice then came over the audio device, built into the headrest of the fighter seat. "Don't destroy her ship, I'm rather interested in getting to know more about this one. She sounds quite lovely. Do me a favor and see if you can't find out her name."

Wolf groaned. "Don't listen to him Leon, you keep radio silence, like I told you, then get out of there. You don't have the element of surprise, so lose them, shoot her down and get back here, and make it quick." He closed the channel and Leon was on his own again. He darted between asteroids, but Fox and the Shuttle stayed close. He was heading for the largest rock of them all, there was nothing else he could do. He finally punched the throttle again, pulling away from the large Meteo Amusement Park at the last second, piloting the Wolfen into a hollow asteroid, and powering down.

The Arwing and the Shuttle slowed their speed, coming up on the massive half-moon sized theme park and several dozen smaller asteroids in the immediate area. As soon as they passed his new hiding spot, Leon punched his afterburners, launching out of the hollow rock and slamming into the shuttle. The Wolfen's solid design and sharply angled fuselage pierced the shuttle's starboard side hull, ripping a gash into the metal.

One of the wing stabilizer assemblies clawed it's way through the back end of her shuttle during the pass, finishing off the job. Simultaneous to the maneuver, Leon opened his forward cannons up on Fox, but the vulpine was too quick, doing an immediate barrel roll, causing the laser blasts to bounce off and go into a random direction. Leon put his ship at full throttle, using his Afterburner to leave them behind. He skillfully avoided the asteroids, at such a high speed, disappearing from the scanners.

"Krystal!" McCloud shouted, seeing her ship spin about, heading into the artificial atmosphere bubble that surrounded MeteoLand. She went in, in a tailspin, heading for the ground quickly. Fox steered his fighter into the atmospheric bubble, accelerating quickly and easing the brand new fighter, not yet paid for, underneath her shuttle to try and steer her out of the nose dive.

The smooth thinking vulpine punched in a command to bring up manual control of his G-Diffuser output, directing the gravity diffusing field out of the Arwing and into a semi bubble that would half extend into the Shuttle. He pulled up hard, and groaned at the heavy G-force that pinned him to the seat. With the G-Diffusers being used to artificially lighten the force of weight of two plummeting space craft, he could feel the force of gravity sandwiching him to the pilot chair.

On the screen, it displayed a calculation of mass, multiplied by velocity with momentum added in. The computer quickly calculated the anti-gravity displacement and offered a solution for a power output, but it was something the Arwing couldn't generate in the short distance they had left. The Arwing began to scoot forward, pulling the nose up, so that the nose of her shuttle was perpendicular, flat against the top of the Arwing.

Fox looked up through his cockpit canopy and saw her horrified expression through the plexi-bubble cockpit windshield of her shuttle. He then glanced down at his readout and transfered all the power of his tactical and offensive systems into the quad G-diffusers and his retro reverse thrusters built into the bottom of the fighter, used for hovering from a vertical take off, then punched the brake boosters.

The Arwing's computer calculated the change in their speed, but they were still approaching the ground too fast. He transfered power from everything but shields, into the G-diffusers and the retro-brake rockets built into the belly of the Arwing. He took a deep breath of the fresh air that was still in the cockpit, then forwarded the power from life support into the equation as well.

Fox looked up once more, his eyes meeting with Krystal's own soft gaze. It was the last split-section action, giving one another strength over their worries. Any second they would collide with the ground. Fox offered a weak, slightly grim smile. It was all he could afford her. She nodded in reply, it was all she could afford him.

The ground rushed up to meet the belly of the Arwing, with the Shuttle atop of it, in the shape of an inverted "T". The two vessels slammed into the surface, a massive cloud of dust raising up to swallow them, vialing their impact from Leon's computer sensors, letting the chameleon half-assume they might just be dead. Leon knew better. He would never get so lucky as to have successfully killed Fox McCloud, and _if he did_, Wolf would be _pissed_.

Next Chapter: Proving Herself.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Hey, just real quick. Sorry, I haven't updated in a while. I moved again and won't have internet until tomorrow. I had to drive to my local Starbucks to upload this file, tonight, haha. Wooord! All right, boys and girls, enjoy this. I hope you all see the foreshadowing that leads into ASSAULT. Pigma tries to induct Wolf's help and Wolf tells him to get lost, and Fox and Krystal have their first 'training mission' alone, as Krystal optimistically looks at it, and they have time together, which Krystal seems to enjoy a great deal, in ASSAULT. This has started out as a short story about Krystal that turned into a story about what happens in Krystal's life, between ADVENTURES and ASSAULT. If you guys like the direction this story is going in, tell me. I've only decided to extend it this way, so it lasts longer, which I've been told is exactly what yaw'll readers want! So feed back and let me know if this is making you happy!

-Kit

Chapter 7: Proving herself.

* * *

**There** was a twitch, followed by another involuntary shutter. Krystal's soft lashes fluttered open, gazing up at the twisted metal wreckage around her. She thought for sure that an abandoned theme park, of all places, on an asteroid would not have breathable air. And yet, with the gash in her shuttle, breathable, faintly stale air made it's way in. Her mind began to piece together what happened.

The enemy fighter gouged her ship and an emergency forcefield came up to protect from vacuum and atmospheric decompression. Now that they'd crashed, the ship had powered down, leaving all systems inoperable, except for an emergency, battery backup flood light, that cast a dim glow within the shuttle's confines. As her eyes adjusted, the world around her sliding into focus, she realized that she was still in her cockpit seat, suspended by the chest belt that held her in place.

Fox was on the other side of the glass beneath her, not moving. She shrugged her shoulders, then rotated her wrists and ankles. Nothing broken. Her legs lifted outwards, then she went for the seatbelt release. She quickly dropped, landing on her hands and knees, on the plexi-bubble windshield, which was now spiderwebbed in three places. Her mind reached out for Fox but he was unconscious. However, she could sense that he was alive and it alleviated her immediate worries. Now, her only concern was to make sure he wasn't injured.

She, like her tribe of skulk, was a healer. The branded picture on her leg, which was inked with white was the symbol of the Cardinal Sun, a compass overtop a shining star. Krystal knew she could heal him; all she had to do was get out of her shuttle. She lifted her hind paws and tried to kick at the plexi-bubble but even with a kick directly in the center of the spider-webbed sections, it wouldn't give.

She glanced up at the hook where her staff used to hang, but it was back on the GreatFox. Her eyes rolled, glancing back down through the cracked windshield at her friend, in the cockpit beneath, completely motionless. She squinted at him, and it appeared as though he wasn't breathing. She focused her mind for a moment, and then placed her paws against the windshield once more. Suddenly, the windshield shattered in shards of tempered plastic. She felt herself plummet, dropping atop of the Arwing, sliding half-way down its fuselage. Her paws reached for something to grasp, during her fall, snagging her left paw across the handrail on the frame of his canopy.

Her body flung downwards, hanging by her left paw, about seven feet in the air. She arched her back, putting her feet on the side of the Arwing's hull and pulled herself up. After a few minutes of tinkering with the manual release lever, she figured it out and the canopy clicked open, there was no hiss of air decompression, it was more of a suction sound, like opening a vacuum tube. She grabbed onto Fox by his collar, still hanging off the side of the Arwing, which half supported the weight of her shuttle. After a moment of struggling, she managed to unclick his safety belt, bringing both of them sailing to the ground, him landing on his back, her landing unceremoniously upon her rump.

There was no time to grouse, she knew what she had to do. She quickly dashed over to where Fox was laying, pinching his nose shut with her right index and thumb, using her left paw to part his muzzle. She took a deep breath, then forced her mouth over his, pushing the air into his lungs. She released his nose after a few seconds, then placed her paws, one overtop the other, upon his chest, beginning to push on his upper torso, performing CPR. Nothing.

She knew her chi-like power strike was a little dangerous for someone with an older heart, like Peppy, but Fox was different. She kept her palms flat upon his chest, then performed the same maneuver she did on the windshield, and during the spar the other night, when they were practicing against one another. The sudden jolt of energy against his chest caused her body to be pushed apart from his own, knocking her away from him for only a moment. She then scrambled back over to him and went back to forcing air into his lungs.

It worked. He coughed into her muzzle, causing her to break the air-tight seal of their lips, to let him gasp for air. She sat back on her haunches, just staring at him for a moment, her sigh of relief rather audible. Fox continued coughing, in an attempt to get a fresh breath of oxygen, but was only awarded with the stale air of the old Asteroid theme park. The oxygen tanks hadn't been stirred in over a decade, for the most part, so the entire atmosphere had a stale sort of taste to it.

Fox flopped back, breathing normally again, looking rather worn and beaten. Krystal scooted back over besides him, patting his cheek, right on the side of his muzzle with her paw. "You'll live to get married," She said with a chuckle, then stood up, quickly dusting herself off. The Arwing was in exceptional shape. The Shuttle, on the other hand, was a total loss. If she could somehow fit in his Arwing that would be one thing, but they'd have to find a way to get the shuttle off of it, first.

Fox muttered only loud enough for her to barely hear him, "I dislocated my shoulder somehow, I don't even know how I did it."

"That was probably from me, pulling you out of the cockpit by your shirt collar. Sorry about that, I was in a hurry, you weren't breathing. What happened to your life support?" She asked, still dusting herself off.

"I rerouted the power from that system to help with the landing. I didn't realize the impact and the G-Forces would render me unconscious," he sighed, shaking his head. He was in a great deal of pain, his shoulder causing incredible grief. She lifted her left paw, showing him where she cut herself across her paw's smallest finger, from where she had grabbed onto the canopy latch, a moment prior. It happened when she slid off of his fighter, after tumbling out of her own ship.

"Nice. We should probably get ourselves fixed up and contact Corneria, let them know what happened," He said. "My arm hurts so bad, it's giving me a headache. Wanna see if you can't climb up into my cockpit and grab my headset, it must have come off during the crash."

Krystal gave a slight, lopsided grin, then clambered back up to his cockpit, leaving occasional bloody paw prints up the side of the armor plated hull. She snatched his headset then slid back down and dropped to her feet. Handing the headset over, she added, "You know, we've got to figure out how we're going to get me to fit behind the cockpit seat, if we can get my shuttle off the top of your fighter."

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. We'll contact Corneria and have your shuttle taken off the top of the Arwing first," Fox explained. He slipped the headset over his head, speaking into it. "Slippy, it's Fox. I need your help, man," He said, waiting for a reply.

A moment later, Slippy's reply, garbled from poor reception, came back. "Hey F-fox. We saw you go down, on the satellite over MeteoLand, but GreatFox is in mid-refit, we haven't finished securing the deal on the rest of the Arwings yet, and securing transportation out there will take at least one planetary rotation. Can you stick it out for just one day?"

"Yeah, but HellCat Alpha is under attack. Krystal and I think another mercenary group is going to ambush them to help out Andrew," He explained into the headset.

"It's all over the news," Slippy said, shaking his head, on the tiny little holographic emitted image that hovered above Fox's left wrist's gauntlet. "HellCat Alpha doesn't exist anymore. Pepper won't send us in, either, because you crashed, and because their non-war-time murder is considered a police action investigation. So they're leaving it up to cops. Whoever pulled it off has gotten away with it, left no evidence except for scraps of metal and little tiny pieces of shrapnel. They're professionals, whoever they were," said the toad, with a shake of his head.

"I'll survive one day. Let me know when S&R is underway. You may not even need to send an SWACs to get us, if Krystal and I can get off this place on our own. I'll keep you posted. Fox out," He said into the headset unit then flipped a switch on his gauntlet that closed the channel.

"I guess we're here for at least one day. I hate feeling helpless, so let's see if we can't find something around here to use to our advantage, see if we can't secure something to eat and see about finding those theme-park control towers, stir the oxygen tanks and maybe have some fresh air," he said to her.

"You didn't bring rations?" She asked, partially surprised he didn't prepare.

"It was an Arwing test drive, it wasn't supposed to be a full, real mission. No, I didn't put any ration packets into the storage compartment. C'mon, this place should have a ton of synthetic food in frozen storage, that stuff has a shelf life of ….several decades, easily. We don't have to be stranded, and this mission could turn out to be fun, let's go," He said, taking point, keeping his left paw over his right shoulder, tenderly favoring it.

Krystal placed a paw on her hips, pausing for a moment to survey the area. They were surrounded by rides and abandoned convenience stores. She folded her wrists behind her back, looking around in silence for a moment longer, before placing her arms back around her waist, her expression showing one of dismay.

"What's wrong?" Fox asked quietly, still favoring his arm at the shoulder. She didn't really reply, so he thought better of the situation and simply told her, "I know this place somewhat, I went here a few times as a kid; Peppy took me."

"How old were you when Peppy began to raise you?" she asked, falling into step besides him. The two walked along, keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of anything that would make their life any harder. In consideration of everything that had gone wrong thus far, both of them were paranoid and weary. Krystal didn't sense anyone, including the one that caused this mess to begin with, but that didn't mean there weren't any guard sentries around.

Fox tilted his head, talking as they walked, "Well I was 10 when dad was involved in Andross being banished. He was a key witness that Andross caused the death of my mother, but I didn't learn the details of that until I was a little older, because Dad felt that no child should hold that much hate for someone, until I was mature enough to handle the emotion."

"And when your father disappeared?"

"I was 16. It was really difficult, because I was in my senior year at the academy. I dropped out that year and went recluse, but Peppy's return 35 days after they went MIA/Presumed-Dead status, helped me cope," Fox explained to her. "I went back at 17, and finished my last three months, since I was a valedictorian superintendent's honor roll up to that point. I didn't have great grades at 17, in my last three months of school, but I graduated, and began to save money from everything that was left in dad's will and everything that that I was given by the military for being a minor with dead parents. Life insurance money became available when I turned 18."

"And Peppy took legal custody of you?" Krystal asked, able to partially sense him, simply because his feelings were so strong, pure and honest.

"Yeah," McCloud nodded. "There was a huge list of problems. Place to live, affordability, trying to hide out and lay low while we used money to illegally purchase a dreadnought. It isn't an illegal cruiser, but at the time, with a war brewing and political tensions mounting, they didn't want people owning something like that, with massive guns on the front, that's armed like that. Corneria was initially afraid we would look too militant and peace talks with Venom wouldn't work out."

Krystal was able to finish his statement, due to the proximity she was from his mind, adding, "But the peace talks had no chance because Andross had no intent for peace and he was the one who was standing behind Venom?" To her words, Fox nodded. She frowned slightly, "And then the law changed concerning your ship?"

"Naw," Fox glanced at the computerized gauntlet on his arm, which had a built in chronometer. "Not really, they were kinda being crappy about it. So we stayed away from Corneria and made Papetoon our base of operations, because they were neutral, as far as the government goes…. The people weren't, but with GreatFox not completely finished, and finding it difficult to get help in construction with the law still standing, we stayed in a deserted part, outside of town, hiding out beneath an oak tree basement complex."

"What happened with Pepper, how did you guys get called into action?" She asked.

"It's kinda complicated," Fox admitted sourly, as they walked through the deserted theme park, "he sent for us, through an encoded holo-video. Once we got it, we snuck aboard a Phoenix Enterprises transport shuttle. We wound up at Corneria, assessed the situation and did our best to plan a small attack through the wormhole distortion field. We did all right, but Andross wasn't ultimately involved in the end attack. It was just a short mission, and we spent about a week on base in the Cornerian Capitol city."

"Go on," Krystal said.

Fox chuckled, still rubbing his shoulder with his paw. "Andross had some sort of clone or robotic twin, we didn't do anything. Another year passed and we were paid just enough to finish GreatFox. We still had to avoid Corneria with it, and tension was really high, politically. We disappeared again, but this time, we had just enough money to buy the prototype Arwings from Pepper and by then they were slightly updated. He knew what we did, but it was kept quiet, except on Papetoon, where it was obvious when we had to fight an attack off, there."

"Oh my," She said, the two vulpine approaching the end of the adult ride sections, with massive spires and roller coasters. "I take it you guys sat on the sidelines while Corneria's defenses began to get… what's the term? Flushed down the tubes?"

"Something like that," Fox chuckled softly, doing all that he could to keep his mind off the pain in his shoulder. It was so bad, that Krystal could feel it in her arm, sensing his injury and the hurt he experienced. "Anyhow, I was kinda upset with Corneria at the time. They weren't helping much with the murder of my father, and they weren't helping beyond a slight monetary deal through General Pepper. When Corneria began to lose the war, Pepper got desperate… He begged us to help."

"By then, you'd had good training with your fighters, and your team was ready, but now, in more modern nights, they've been sitting stagnant and you had to retire Peppy," Krystal added, again finishing his sentence. "But Peppy can still fly?"

"He gets tired and achy joints from sitting in a cockpit for long periods at a time. We were in the cockpit for a pretty good amount of time during our official Lylat War sortie run over Venom. I mean 7 and 8 hour periods for one run, between refueling. Everyone was achy, but he can't go more than an hour now."

"I'm sorry to hear that," She mused aloud. They now stood in front of the main control offices, where most of the rides were operated and monitored. Fox used his wrist computer to cut the lock, with an ingenious laser and torch attachment that could be used to spot weld if need be. He took out the hinges and Krystal pushed her shoulder against the door, heaving it open. Fox's own shoulder was obviously not in any shape to have done the same.

Inside went without incident. They stirred the oxygen tanks and turned on the power to activate flood lights throughout the park. But without food, until rescue arrived, Fox's only hope was to see if he couldn't fix Krystal into his Arwing, but that wouldn't be fair, in a tiny space that would require being literally stuffed into the equipment cubby.

"Let's find something to eat; the food storage is on the other side of the park. I don't think the sentry bots work anymore, this long without servicing and without the recharging stations active, we should be fine," Fox said, leading her back out into the park. As they walked through the desolate area, the air slowly but surely began to regain its freshness, due to their efforts of stirring the O2 tanks. Up ahead, the path had become blocked by wreckage and crumbling pillars of steel and sections that were destroyed that had been converted into a Venom outpost.

Fox could remember this area, from the bombing runs, and now the way was blocked. Who'd have thought 8 years later, he was blocking his own path? The two began to climb up over the wreckage, in an attempt to get over it. Heaps of twisted steel beams and concrete blocks were strewn about the ground, in a massive pile that raised several stories into the air. The further they climbed, the more difficult it began to get for Fox, due to his shoulder injury.

Once they reached the summit, the two decided to take a few minutes to rest. Fox glanced at his computerized gauntlet, which had a compass adjacent to the chronometer. They were certainly headed in the right direction, but sitting on the top of a massive junk pile really put things into perspective. Behind them, the Arwing crash site was over several miles in the distance. Ahead of them, the restaurant sections that were still at least several more miles beyond them made them feel almost teased.

"Are you tired, Fox?" Krystal asked, perching herself upon the edge of a vertical iron girder.

"My arm is killing me. I'm glad I was able to save you, because you really earned your way onto the team by returning the favor," Fox said.

"No, that was just being a healer. It's what I do, Fox. It's far from earning my way onto something as prestigious as the StarFox team," She said in reply.

Fox shook his head, chuckling slightly, "If you say so." He winced in pain again, then directed his vision back down the metallic slope, shaking his head with a frown. "This isn't going to be fun, you know."

"Not for you, but let's keep our spirits up. I'm optimistic, Fox, that we can survive this," She offered in dulcet tones.

"Where's the incentive?" Fox inquired, in joshing tones of reply, "I'm not starving or anything. It's an awfully long hike. And it's not like this mission is going to pay, I'll understand if you want to stay close the Arwing until tomorrow."

"Need an incentive, do you?" She asked. She could sense that it was how his mind worked. He never put himself or his friends into danger unless they were well paid or the danger was worth it, in the end. She simply leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against the side of his muzzle. This was her training mission as far as she was concerned and she wanted to prove things to him. This mission was important to her, in her heart. She had a leader to impress.

The kiss upon his cheek made him blush, but it also made his chest flutter in an explosion of butterflies. What many women failed to understand about a man who had little experience with women, was the fact that a man's first love and sometimes even his second love, if the situation was pure enough, could make him light on his feet with just one kiss. He immediately began suite, following her down the side of the twisted wreckage pile, heading to the ground with minimal struggling.

Once there, the pair quickly made a game plan, heading for the abandoned restaurants. It was still a few miles of walking but only because the public transportation lines were not active. Most of the rails were destroyed from the Lylat War, over 8 years ago. Krystal felt simply awful that he was in such pain and wanted to help him, but relocating his shoulder would be excruciating to say the least. During their walk, she took some time to get up the courage to ask permission to offer such a service.

"If you would like, I can try to push your arm joint back into the shoulder socket, but it will hurt at first," She told him, a frown marring her face at the thought of causing him more pain, even if it was to help.

"Do I get another kiss?" Fox asked, pushing those shy connotations aside, trying to look comfortable with the idea of intimacy. The fact was, he had less trouble with the public display of affection when they were alone. When his team was around, he got embarrassed about the thought of him being with a woman and she would simply have to learn to understand it.

"I suppose I can manage another kiss like the last one, if you're good about letting me cause you more pain," She said, coming to stand besides him, placing her left paw on his shoulder and her right paw upon his firm bicep. Fox paused, bracing himself for the pain that would happen any moment, and it was now or never.

Krystal tensed up, forcing the ball joint to slip back into the socket. The dislocated shoulder was replaced but not at the expense of grinding nerves which caused Fox to yelp. The sharp spike of pain was so bad that he didn't even realize the hurt disappeared, at first. He reached his left paw back up to favor his shoulder, but Krystal redirected his attention by cupping his jaw with her right palm, bringing her lips to his for a quick, chaste kiss.

Fox froze. Krystal couldn't be sure if he was freezing against her lips because he wanted to melt into it and keep the kiss going for a bit longer, or if he locked up in fear. She couldn't sense anything over her own swirl of emotions. After several lengthy seconds, the kiss broke naturally and she smiled. Fox smiled also, but quickly lowered his head, reaching his left paw behind his head, grinding his toe into the dirt, chuckling nervously.

"How's your arm feel, Fox?" She finally asked.

"My arm? …Oh! Yeah, uhm, my arm! It feels a lot better," He admitted, having forgotten that it even hurt after the kiss, "Thanks. Much better. Little achy, but that's nothing a little heat won't be able to fix. It feels a hundred times kiss…er.. I mean, better! It feels a hundred times better!" Fox seriously wanted to smack himself in the forehead, he felt like he was making a jackass of himself and mentally scolded himself for losing all composure because of a simple, innocent kiss.

Krystal, on the other hand, giggled softly. She brushed her paws together, a pleased look upon her maw. "I'm glad I could help. Let's go get something to eat. I'm sure we're both famished by now. C'mon!" She gave a playfully tug at his hand, then started a brisk walk towards the restaurants and food stands in the distance.

Fox, on the other hand, had inadvertently rooted himself into the soil, during that last kiss. Even better, this one wasn't on his cheek, either. It was on his lips and he wouldn't forget it. He tried to remember what the pain in his shoulder felt like, but that memory simply didn't exist. Finally, he pushed himself to move, heading after Krystal. He felt lighter on his feet and even had a slight bounce in his step. As long as the guys didn't find out, he felt like he could tackle a wave of fighters barehanded. His mind was disoriented and he was struggling to keep the mission priorities above his personal ones.

Krystal, up ahead, was an ethereal beauty. His eyes and heart and everything south of such was completely pleased. She turned her head just slightly, to steal a glance of him over her shoulder, using only her peripheral vision. It caused the flood lights of the area to reflect off of those sea green irises and caused his heart to skip a beat. He mentally scolded himself to rearrange his priorities and the thought, which she could sense, caused her to crack a very slight, sexy smile.

She knew how he felt inside. She also knew that he planned to stow his feelings because they were inappropriate. He swallowed his pride, keeping an air of confidence and a sense of mission about himself. They fell into step once more, side by side, heading across the themepark.

"So, uhm." Fox paused. She turned to cast a gaze upon him, as if to goad him to finish his question. "Yeah," Fox chuckled nervously, wondering if she knew exactly what she had done to him. "Can you sense anything up ahead?"

"Nothing else is living on this rock, besides us." Her words were plain and to the point. She felt if she could put forth a sense of duty, it would help him get over his almost boyish feelings that were beyond adorable. "Let's hurry. I'm sure we can have a camp set up by nightfall."

"Yeah," Fox agreed quickly, "We can definitely secure a camp within the next 5 hours. Let's hustle."

* * *

**L**ord Wolfarus O'Donnell sneered at the monitor fixated above him. They weren't giving credit where it was due, but Wolf reminded himself that it wasn't his place to get politically involved in helping Andrew Oikonni. The guy was an idiot and Wolf simply wanted a few bucks out of the deal. His cold emotion melted into a grin of satisfaction, due in part that the media never knew who was at fault for the mass destruction of HellCat Alpha.

Wolf now stood inside the large bar that was inside the star base of what used to be old Bolse Defense station. He had walked the promenade for an hour, listening for information on what could lead to the next big job but learned nothing. Now he was doing the same thing inside the bar, where contraband flowed like water and the seedy little joint breathed cash and contacts if one knew how to handle themselves here.

A tap on O'Donnell's shoulder caused him to whirl around, standing face to face with a disgustingly pudgy visage, his gaze growing wide. He was in so much shock that he had to lift his eye patch and use the uninhibited bionic gaze to make sure he wasn't going insane. Pigma Dengar stood before him, fists on his hips, and a smirk on his pudgy pork-chop face.

Wolf lifted his chin, pulling the eye patch the rest of the way off, as if to downplay his surprise by acting like he did it on purpose. "Nice clothes, fatso. Weren't you dead?"

"It's surprising what 8 years of interest does to your account, even if you only got half of your reward to begin with... Yeah I was, but not dead enough. You should get rid of the eye patch. You look more intimidating with the bionic eye," Pigma said with a snicker.

Wolf smirked and pushed the patch into his pocket. "I only hide the bionic eye so people don't know I have an advantage. So you're fat, stupid, rich but _alive_, huh? Congratulations on being so cool, you want a sticker?" O'Donnell asked with a cross tone.

"No, I want another shot at Fox. How long has it been, Wolf?" Dengar's reply wasn't nearly as terse.

"Almost ten years, tubby," Wolf replied, folding his arms over his chest. Pigma was actually asking to fly with him again? He killed Fox's father, and even Wolf, himself, didn't trust this hog as far as the lupine could throw him.

Wolf's words confirmed what Pigma had feared. He'd been under for eight years... or worse... he could be a clone of a man who's been freshly killed and immediately frozen for nearly a decade. Wolf, on the other hand, didn't know what Pigma had gone through recently. Pigma held his hand out with a light smile. "Miss me, didn't cha?"

Wolf replied by crossing a left jab across Dengar's snout then pushed his paws into his pockets. "No. And don't touch me, you whiny little turd." Wolf didn't miss anyone at all, especially that tubby freak.

"Touch? Didn't YOU just hit me?" Pigma said, as if he was unfazed by the punch.

"It was a reflex action. Screw off, Porky," O'Donnell growled.

"Hear me out first, Wolf. If ya don't like what you hear, I'll leave you alone, if you do... just think about it, you don't gotta commit to anything yet," Dengar explained.

Wolf smirked. "All right," he said casually, then added, "Tell ya what, big guy, let's go get a booth. I'll actually _buy_ you a beer, and you can tell me your sob story, then I can tell you something that will make your jaw fall off, and then? We'll see where _you_ stand. Go get a booth, I'll be back with the brew."

Pigma did just that, walking over to a quiet booth that wasn't near anyone else, and sat down. Wolf came back with two large 40 ounce mugs of frosty beer, setting them down on the table. He plopped into the booth, his back against the wall, with one leg across the rest of the bench, turning his head to look across the table at his old wing mate.

"So what's your story, bacon-boy?"

Pigma had a sudden memory lapse. Every single time Wolf ever referred to him by a meat product replayed in his mind, simultaneously. He played it off by rubbing his eyes, looking away and grunting to himself. "Bacon - boy? Bacon - butt? Pork Grind? Don't you ever come up with anything original, Wolf?"

"Like bXXch-tXts?" Wolf said, reaching across the table to flick Dengar in his chest, causing his jolly build to roll and quiver for a moment, just underneath his extra, extra large tank top.

Pigma rolled his eyes, "Okay, that one's a first. Anyhow, someone crashed a core base into Venom. It was on an autopilot course for Venom and collided when no one disengaged the computer. I guess the auxiliary power lasted about two months before the system finally crashed and reanimated my sleep chamber," He explained. He paused to look and see Wolf's reaction. The Core Base had been ignored and no one cared to investigate the odd computer virus that caused it.

Wolf was amused and yet confused. "Were you on it?"

"Oh really, Wolf? A moment ago, you said you didn't miss me?" Pigma replied, reaching up to rub his snout where he'd been socked.

The one-eyed pilot shook his head. "No, Dengar, I asked if you were on it. I didn't say I miss you. I said you're fat, you're ugly, you whine a whole lot, and I can see every time the planet you're on passes in front of Sol because you eclipse the entire star. So what are you babbling about... Spit it out," Wolf said, beginning to grow frustrated. He paused to take a sip of beer and let himself calm down.

"I don't know what's going on, however, I woke up when the power failed. In the chamber next to me was a beat up version of me in a deep freeze. Although without power, I don't know how long it'll take for that corpse to thaw out and rot," The swine explained, reaching for his own beer. He shuttered at the taste, giving a look of disgust, but continued to drink from the mug.

"What the hell, Pigma? You love that beer," Wolf said, looking at him strangely.

"Must be an acquired taste," The oversized pilot muttered.

"Lord knows, you drank enough of it to learn how to breathe through it," Wolf said. "In fact, I never did figure out how you sucked down beer, with your nose halfway in it. Doesn't it burn when that crap runs up your nostrils? Shoot, it's only THEE most carbonated beer out there."

Pigma placed the glass on the table and rubbed his sleeve against his nose. Amusingly enough, he did just get beer up his snout and it did burn, but he played it off as if Wolf's jab was starting to smart. "Speaking of my nose, you didn't have to haul off and punch me in it," He groused, softly.

Wolf shrugged and replied casually with, "Whatever. So what's your deal? You think the clone of you died in the impact? Andross was all into that cloning crap. Waste of time, if you ask me. Could'a been from getting thrown around in that casket-like box during impact. You know, you're even more ugly since I remember you 8 years ago, and don't look like you aged that much. Good job, you swanky pornstar, you."

"Yeah. I don't know. I don't remember much. It's been two days and I feel like I'm getting older each day. Catching up with my age. The last thing I remember," Pigma trailed off, then casually took another sip of beer, this time making sure not to get any up his nose. "Fox McCloud... then my Ejection manifold was throwing sparks because my canopy was mangled. The unit stressed itself until the transformer made a loud popping sound... my proximity alarm was screaming, I lifted my head just in time to see the ground rise up to me... "

Wolf shuttered. Pigma's description of the last events before his supposed death were chillingly detailed. No pilot wanted to think about that, because it was almost always the end. A pilot rarely survived the crash, because the cockpit was always crushed and with the weight of an engine behind him, he should have been flattened.

O'Donnell shrugged, once more, taking another sip of his frosty brew. "Yeah? What happened? The fighter exploded but you bounced because you're rotund roundness protected your overly stressed skeleton from shattering? I bet there was a mighty earthquake on _that_ day."

"I think the guy in the ...other cryotube... was the real Pigma," Dengar said.

"BullsXXt. You wouldn't have any memories, especially the one of hitting the ground," Wolf replied between swigs of his drink.

"I guess. I just came from there two days ago. It's been bothering me ever since. All I remember is that Fox shot me down and robbed me of a lot of money. I need your help getting him back. Are you in?"

Wolf looked sour. "So. I heard Andrew is trying to take over his empire and use his stupid telekinesis equipment... Maybe that means Andross is dead."

"Andrew...? He was half the pilot I was," Pigma scoffed.

Wolf grinned and nodded, "Yeah, but you were twice the screw up he was. Being evil wasn't something you were good at, because you've gotta do it with grace. So, then Andrew escaped a Corneria prison with help from _some_body. I think he plans to reemerge as the new Emperor over Andross' old forces. Eight years and he tries to become the leader of a rebellion. What kinda lame crap is that?" The lupine asked to no one in general.

"How's Leon?" Pigma asked, changing the subject.

"He's good. He got something I didn't… a new eye. They took that stupid looking square box off his face and he looks great, the thing is, the larynx was crushed and his new vocal chords sound kinda scratchy. He sounds like crap when he talks. Corneria actually got Andrew new eyes too," Wolf explained. Andrew was wearing that rectangular box after first being shot down over Fortuna, during the war. He was doing far better, now-a-days. After he went down over Fortunia and again over Bolse, he had his face shattered. When they fought Fox over Venom, Andrew was flying with his new optical visor. Corneria restored his natural vision in a special surgery.

"Good to hear," Dengar said, then added, "Sorry if I'm bugged out. It's just driving me crazy that some of my memories are a little fuzzy. I've been getting them back, more and more, over the last two days but with everyone thinking I'm dead and half the goons out there not remembering who I am, it's like living in the twilight zone."

O'Donnell shrugged. "Nah, you're probably not a clone. And those things that shagged that old abandoned Core Base and crashed it into Venom, it was this little half-robotic, half-flesh being. I don't remember what they're called but I've been paid to kill them once or twice. They usually don't mess around in Lylat. Let's just hope it stays that way." Wolf grinned. After all, Pigma did say he had some memories missing A massive trauma like hitting the ground in a medium fighter at well over Ten Kilometers per Second... would probably cause anybody to lose a few memories.

"You believe in the Goddess, Dengar?"

"Of course I do. I may swear to her from time to time, but that doesn't mean I don't believe in her," Pigma said, looking at Wolf suspiciously. "Why? Did you go religious?"

"Nah," Wolf said. "Just that they say Clones don't have a soul. If you believe in the Goddess, even in the midst of all this scientific crap, like clones and stuff, you're probably not a clone."

"I don't know how that means anything, Wolf?" Dengar snapped. "Clones would have the same free will to make their decisions on religion and whatever else. I think the question is, if I'm a clone, will I go to heaven or hell? Or can I be as evil as I want and not have to worry about eternal damnation. There's no door prize at the end. There's no reward or punishment at the end, if a Clone dies," Pigma said.

Wolf shrugged. No one had seen Dengar around in years. Even his assistant, Ruffian had never heard of Pigma Dengar. "Theoretically. Who knows, maybe because the original Pigma betrayed his friends and killed the father of two children who thought of him as an Uncle at one point of time... you AND your clone will go to hell. Then again, they say the Goddess is forgiving and repentance gets you in, but hey... It's all just a bunch of theories. We might all die and wake up as hairless apes on some far-away planet where they don't even have interplanetary space fighters yet, claiming they're the center of the universe, where everyone has a different idea of who to pray to and they all have to get around using wheeled transportation that doesn't even break the speed of sound."

Pigma shuttered, shaking his head rapidly. "Now _that_ sounds like a bad dream. Everyone's the same race and don't know the joy of star fighters? What could be worse?"

"If they were so dumb that they had to break their own race down into classes, because they didn't have any pigs to pick on, like you. Or maybe, since they didn't have fur, they segregated themselves by skin pigment or something," Wolf chuckled.

"How does a planet of only one race segregate themself? That's the dumbest thing you've ever said, Wolf."

"Yeah, the whole _hairless apes on a planet that thinks they're the center of the universe, segregating themselves_ idea... _is_ probably the dumbest thing I've ever said, and I'm not even drunk yet," Wolf chided, leaning back in his booth seat, resting both his legs across the bench, crossed at the ankles. "By the way, I don't trust you. If a few dollars can get you to turn on your old squadron leader, Corneria could buy you back because lord knows my bounty would make you see money symbols in your beedy little eyeballs, Mister tons'o'fun, so just remember this, snack-bag, it's been 8 years and I've done great without you."

"I've got money now, now I want to get Fox. Is that such a problem?" Pigma sneered.

"Yeah, go start your own gang. Not a problem at all. Go find a nice little planet that you can hide out on and run your own operation. You have a few dollars put aside? Great! Go build a base. I hear Fachina would be abandoned if you destroyed the environment control center. Oh, and I'm sure Katina could fall pretty easy. If you had an unquestioning army behind you, you could overrun their outpost real fast. Heck, maybe you could even build your own, in the middle of nowhere." Wolf said.

"Please, Wolf. At least consider it?" Dengar said with an angry sigh.

"I'm open minded enough to consider it, but your past is history. I'd rather move forward than backwards, Dengar. And next time you come looking for me, give me warning because I could have broken your finger or hand... or arm... or shoulder or spine …before I turned around. Now, our little business conversation is done, because I've given you five minutes and thirty seconds, and that's too long, chump."

"Wait," Pigma said, glowering, "You honestly don't want to help me kill Fox McCloud? I can't kill him alone, all I could probably do is steal from him and hurt him a little at a time. It's what I'm best at."

"Have fun," Wolf added with a smile, then quickly picked up his beer and downed it, leaving the mug on the table. "I'm sure something will happen soon enough, that will make your jaw drop," he added, then walked off. He made it to the door by the time a waiter approached Pigma, for the bill.

Dengar's jaw dropped, just as Wolf had predicted, and he glanced up at the Lupine with shock. Wolf smirked over his shoulder and left, entering the crowded promenade and disappearing.

"You ass, you said you were buying ME a drink!" Dengar shouted, but Wolf was already gone. As far as the news about Andrew, his mind didn't take that all in, just yet. As far as Wolf accusing him of being that untrustworthy, the screams of James' tortured cries rushed into his mind and the memory washed over him suddenly, causing him to lose his desire to finish the rest of his own beer.

Dengar threw a few disposable credit vouchers onto the table and stormed off, leaving the currency for the waiter to collect. Guess Wolf didn't want to end up like James if Pigma was really that untrustworthy. But he couldn't remember clearly. For now, it was time to get back to the CoreBase and salvage as much as he could and take it to a nearby planet to get his base of operations started. Maybe Wolf would reconsider, later. The thing was, Pigma had two years of work ahead of him, to try and get his plan in order.

A voice was heard in his mind, whispering instructions, but it wasn't something he consciously realized was happening. "_There will be an invasion. We will wait until your system is once more at war with this being who returns to Venom, tonight. In two short years of time, we will strike without warning. Hurry now, your tasks await you."_

* * *

**K**rystal and Fox spent the past hour dining on delicious, sweet foods that had been frozen in the storage facility. Fruit topped funnel cakes with mountains of powder sugar and ice cream. It was a new world for Krystal and she had no problems with adapting to her surroundings. She, in fact, went out of her way to enjoy all these new, fascinating things that Lylat had to offer. It was a huge, diversified system with a multitude of cultures to explore.

Fox beamed. "You like it? It was my favorite thing to eat when Peppy brought me here as a kid," Fox admitted with a grin. "It's a little too rich for my diet, anymore, but that doesn't mean I won't treat myself to some sweets every now and that. I love Chocolate, after all."

"Ah yes," Krystal mused, finishing the funnel cake. "You mentioned something about Chocolate, before. I tried the synthetic kind, is it the same?"

"No. That's sugar free. You've got to try the real thing. I'll find you some, soon," Fox told her. "And trust me," he added with a grin, "You'll love it."

"Will I?" She asked with a grin. "Well, if that's the case, I'd love to try it sometime. Now, let's take some of this food back towards the Arwing and figure out a way to get my shuttle off your fighter. Then we'll see about sitting arrangements. I don't think there's enough room to sit on your lap, so we'll have to figure something out," She said. Fox looked away so he wouldn't blush, which made her grin, inwardly.

She absolutely loved his reactions, because in the world where she was from, everyone's thoughts were shared publicly. She'd never experienced someone being shy before. It was new to her and for some reason, it tickled her feminine side.

The two finished their meal and packed things that Fox felt wouldn't spoil over night. Once they were ready, their gear packs filled with a night's worth of food, they began their trek back across the Theme Park, heading for the crash site. Krystal thought about placing a paw into Fox's paw, but decided better on the situation, since they'd only been friends for such a short time. Thing was, she trusted him and that was important and special.

The walk was a lengthy one, but the sunlight was still two hours from twilight by the time they reproached the mountain of twisted metal. "Where'd this all come from anyhow?" She asked.

"Eight years ago, Andross built a base here. I did an attack run and my wing mates did a bombing run, behind me, laying to waste all of Andross' buildings. This is what's left, we flew overhead, right here, back on that mission," Fox explained.

The two began to scale the debris again, heading for the crash site, when something caught Fox's eye, at the summit. A flash of a shiny metallic object flitted by, up ahead. He did a double take but there was nothing there. He turned to Krystal and frowned.

"What is it, Fox?"

"Do you sense anything here with us?" He asked.

"If I did, I would certainly have told you, Fox. We're alone. Maybe you saw one of those worker droids you spoke of earlier?" She asked.

McCloud shrugged lightly. Anything was possible. "Maybe. They wouldn't have had very long to charge, since we only just reactivated the power three hours ago. All right, let's get back to the ship. If we do find one of those things, maybe I can have Slippy send a program to my wrist computer, then we can reprogram it and use it to move the shuttle off of the Arwing," Fox mused, out loud.

"Well then let us hope. I rather think optimism is becoming of you, Mister McCloud," She replied with a chuckle, working her way down the huge twisted spires of wreckage. Fox quickly followed, keeping his eyes open for any signs of security droids. With Andross having had a base here, Fox could only hope that they weren't reprogrammed to be hostile, or refitted with weapons. But a gut feeling said it was more than likely.

* * *

Next: "Chapter 8: Political Tension Means a Repeat in History." 


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**: _Okay, as we can all remember, StarFox kinda pops in, during the middle of a HUGE BATTLE at the beginning of StarFox Assault. The battle is between Corneria and Venom, but doesn't really seem to involve the other Lylat Planets (the aparoids do that, themselves!). Also, the fight is above Fortuna, so we know, in the game, Venom never made it as far as Corneria, but if you remember SF:64, Fortuna is pretty darn close. It's more than half way to Corneria from Venom. In fact the only thing between Fortuna and Corneria is the Meteo Asteroid belt. It's the ONLY planet in ASSAULT that Andrew Oikonni had a secret base and manufacturing plant on, every other planet you visit is void of venom presence (but overrun by aparoids, heh). Here, I detail how Krystal gets herself mixed up in the political fiasco of Venom and Corneria going back to war with one another. We begin to see Pepper's transition from his delightful peace-time self seen in SF: Adventures, to the serious natured hound in SF: Assault._

_Fox has his team mates start training and there's no one better to train Krystal than Peppy Hare._

_Also, we get a little look at Panther and his past. How good is he and how is his chemistry with StarWolf? What's the point behind the red rose? Finally, in this chapter, we see Fox's decision on pursuing a relationship with Krystal so early into their friendship._

_In the following chapter, we'll learn more about the brand new 'instant transmission machine' that teleports tanks from the greatfox to a planet's surface. Also, we'll discover what plan 'B' is, and what happens to Panther, as well as Peppy and Krystal. So once you finish this chapter, be sure to leave feedback on what you thought, good or bad! Then stay tuned for Chapter 9, due up by Wednesday, if I can manage to keep my schedule smooth. I surely hope so. We're very near to the end of this story, which begins where SF:ASSAULT begins. Then, because I've been asked by as many as 7 fans, I'll start a short story about Krystal and Fox, that begins the day after SF: Assault comes to a conclusion._

_I suppose this story turned out far differently than I intended. I wanted to show how Krystal was adapting to the loss of Cerinia, how she was coping, how she was coming to evolve and live amongst other non telepathes, how her adaption to the Lylat lifestyle would make her act... and it turned into a huge story about what happened to her and the team between SF:Adventures and SF:Assault, with her as the main character. (Fox won't even BE in chapter 9, most likely.) _

_The thing is, I got more into detail about her involvement between the two games, to placate the people who have come to me over this story, begging to know every detail leading up to the opening credits in ASSAULT. That's why this story evolved into something so complex, to appease you, the readers. You asked for it, so I wish to deliever. As of tonight, this story will reach ONE THOUSAND HIT/READS. I appreciate it, thank you! I know it's not entirely accurate, from people that open Chapter1, then jump up to the latest chapter. It causes two hit/reads and makes Chapter 1 get way more hits than it should, which throws off the true count, but it's still over 3 times more than my other stories. I'm glad yaw'll enjoy the tale I tell! _

_Oh, and I wanted to tell you all, my wife and I now know what our new baby is going to be! A boy! We're having another boy:) Yay!_

* * *

Chapter 8: Political Tensions Make For a Repeat in History

**Fox and Krystal** worked diligently to use the Arwing shields, the Retro Reverse boosters and even the G-Diffusing equipment to dismount the Shuttle that lay upon Fox's new Arwing. If he didn't think fast, earlier, the Arwing would have been crushed and he might have been dead. The Arwing was lucky enough to sustain only very minor scratches, due to the power of its shields.

The problem now was getting the shuttle off the top of it. "What about punching your fighter's Afterburners?" She asked, rubbing the bottom of her chin with her paw.

"Good idea, definitely a good way to get it out from underneath the shuttle, but doing so might rip the top half of the fighter into shreds," Fox explained. If the shuttle caught the top of the fuselage the wrong way, it would be like a can opener, then they would be in real trouble.

"What about detonating a Nova Bomb. We can put the shields up on full power so the Arwing doesn't sustain any damage," She said, continuing, "then we both hold our breath and detonate the Nova bomb. It'll blow the shuttle right off the top, right?"

"Another great idea, but we both have to fit in the cockpit first. Once the shuttle is off the top, I can climb down into it and unbolt the seat," Fox told her. "Then I'll just put the pilot's chair into the cargo hold built into the belly. So we've gotta come up with a way to get the shuttle off the top of the fighter before we can cram down into the cockpit together."

"Oh," Krystal murmured, trying not to look dejected. She put her mind into thinking of a clever way to get out of this situation, doing her best to understand the technology enough to figure something out. Finally she shook her head and said, "Why not ask Slippy for options?"

"Now that's a pretty good idea," Fox admitted with an embarrassed chuckle. He wasn't quite sure what he didn't think of that first. Finally he lifted the gauntlet on his left wrist and pressed a few buttons, speaking into the speaker built into it.

"Heya Slippy. I need some help. I have what's left of Krystal's shuttle on top of the new Arwing. Don't worry, it's not damaged. Anyhow, I want to get the shuttle off of the Arwing so I can use it to come home. Got any ideas?" Fox asked.

"Yeah," Slippy replied, his holographic upper body floating above Fox's wrist. "There's a toolkit in the storage compartment built into the port side. It comes standard. What you'll have to do is disassemble the twin blaster guns, point them vertical and remount them into the wings, so that they fire straight up. Just blast the shuttle to bits. I'd love to salvage the technology to study it, but if you guys can get off of Meteo Land on your own, I suggest you do it, because we need you hear as soon as possible. Have Krystal bring her shuttle's hard drive and black box recorder if the thing even has one, then hurry home. If you c-c-can't make it, we have an appointment to get a ride out that way, tomorrow. But time is of the essence. So hurry up!"

The frog's holographic image faded into nothing and Fox turned to Krystal. They certainly had their work cut out for themselves. Fox knelt down onto one knee and held his paws out. She could sense his intentions and placed a foot into his palm. He stood up, boosting her upwards. She climbed up to the shuttle and in through the shattered windshield.

Once inside her shuttle's cockpit, she took a few minutes to figure out where the computer's main drive was, then she quickly pulled the box out of its mount, tossing it down to Fox, who put it away in his storage compartment.

* * *

**B**eltino Toad exchanged a handshake with General Pepper. "As the new Cornerian Research Director I have a few changes I would like to employ to cut spending costs and elevate efficiency in my team. I really appreciate this opportunity, General and I won't let you down!" Mister Toad was obviously excited.

"Remember, Beltino," Pepper said with a slight chuckle, "This is a lot of pay for a lot of secrecy. Things that we research aren't exactly things the Government cares about, such as enemy war machines. Corneria thinks this war can be avoided but I have plans to start running televised advertisements to join the flight academy and getting a good education in a military career. I can smell it brewing in the air, now that Andrew has gotten passed the Mercenary squadron. Your promotion is a need-to-know basis."

"Promotion? I had one of those? I never said anything about that, well didn't I?" Mister Toad joked.

"Exactly," Pepper said, patting him on the back. "I want to get information on Venom fighters so that we can make counter measures in our next defensive battle group. I don't want to be swept under the rug like we were 8 years ago," Pepper said, shaking his head slightly. "Even if we don't clobber them, we should be able to hold our own better than before."

"You really think we'll end up in war?" Toad asked.

Pepper frowned and replied, "Bad gut feeling. I hate war. It ruins the economy, Corneria ends up in dire needs for repair, we wind up handing out too much money to Mercenaries because they strike quick when we're unprepared, but yes ... I give it a year, two at the most."

"That's never good. I understand they still have the components to rebuild stealth fighters, maybe even mass produce them," Beltino mused.

"Let's hope not. As much as I love StarFox," Pepper said, "Try not to tell your boy about being the Research Director unless he becomes part of the need-to-know basis. I don't like having my directors become targets to assassins like Caruso."

"That guy with the affliction over roses?" Beltino asked, remembering something about it on the news from last year.

"That's the one. Even after trying to use the Media to run him off, we don't have enough on him to banish him, so these slick people who know and break the rules are quick and lethal assassins. I like to keep the status of people like yourself a secret for everyone's safety," Pepper explained, patting Beltino on the back once more.

The meeting lasted another several moments, before Beltino was dismissed. He had a visit set up with Slippy in just a few hours and wanted to get himself cleaned up before going out to have lunch with his son.

* * *

**F**ox and Krystal were busy setting up the Arwing wing-blaster cannons, so that they were now mounted vertical. They'd only had one set up so far, when something metallic sounding rattled loudly from nearby. Both of them lifted their eyes, scanning the area. Krystal couldn't sense any thought patterns and Fox, who had an itchy trigger finger, went for a backup blaster, but soon realized he wasn't armed.

There was no reason to bring a weapon to an Arwing test drive and she didn't keep Lylat weapons in her shuttle. They still had the Arwing nose cannon and wing blasters, as well as a Nova Bomb Canister. Only one, however. The noise happened again, and Fox decided to investigate.

"I'll be back, just start on the next blaster mount, the way I showed you with the first one," Fox said. She nodded and watched him slide down the side of the fighter and walk off to begin an investigation. She glanced back down, carefully balancing herself, crossing over the cockpit to the other wing. Kneeling down once more, she began unfastening the weapon housing bolts, one at a time.

Minutes went by and there was no sign of Fox. She glanced up on occasion, although she could sense that he was alive and unharmed, so she continued with her work. Another few minutes went by and something passed through her like a bee sting. Krystal glanced up, just in time to see Fox scurry around the corner of a warehouse used for rollercoaster cars. A shadow appeared, looming behind him, followed by scythe-like arms and finally the massive metal chassis of a grim looking robotic guard with the old Andross emblem bolted on the side.

Fox made a mad dash for the Arwing, trying his best to dodge the swift slashing motions of the scythe arms behind him. They threatened to eviscerate his backside with only inches between the sharp, rusted claws and his flesh. At one point, he had to jerk his hips to the left to pull his tail out of the way from getting clipped. Finally, he broke into a dive, skidding across the ground, sliding beneath the Arwing hull and using his gauntlet computer to immediately raise the shields for the craft.

The bubble quickly expanded to cover both himself and Krystal. The machine bounced off of the field, seeming confused. It attempted to take a swish at the invisible shield but was pushed back as if it was clawing at a cloaked wall. After a moment, it began to strafe in circles, simply waiting. Before long, more bots joined in, centurions of death belonging to a long toppled emperor. If there was only a way for Fox or Krystal to tell them the war was over, but they weren't programmed to listen.

"How long do we have, or will these shields keep us safe?" She asked, glancing down to where Fox was in the dirt.

"They'll adapt. It'll take'em a little time to try different frequencies until they can pass through my shields. When they find the right number, they'll tell all their robotic buddies and we'll be in real trouble, so we've got to figure out a way to fight them off, or hope they run out of juice before they figure out whatever my shields are tuned to. Let's hope for the latter. You keep working, I'll figure out what we can use for a weapon," Fox told her.

Krystal nodded, dutifully and continued the disassembly of the blaster mount, trying to work as quickly as possible. Fox climbed up the side of the fuselage and quickly pried open the canopy, hunting for something that he could use offensively. One of the robotic guards passed in front of the Arwing's forward mounted nose cannon. As soon as it was in the cone of fire, Fox mashed down on the charge beam then released the trigger, blowing it into scraps.

"Where did they come from?" Krystal called out, finishing with the last wing-blaster assembly.

"I think they were diggers," Fox noted. "Before Andross ruined this theme park, they tunneled into the dirt to repair the underground tunnel rides, the foundations of tall rides and generally to do maintenance. Corneria had to spend so much money on repairing the homeland cities, that it was far from being able to afford to worry about MeteoLand, much less what these stupid robots were now programmed to do."

"The wing blaster assembly is finished. I think it might be best if I climb under the Arwing, for cover," She said in reply. "I hope this works!" She quickly scampered under the Arwing, making sure to stay within the round overly expanded bubble of the Arwing's shielding system. Fox had programmed the force field to expand to its maximum diameter encasing the fighter in a round globe-like barrier. Once she was in place, Fox opened fire with the wing blaster main cannons, ripping into the shuttle that kept the Arwing trapped against the ground.

After shooting so many holes through the Shuttle, it began to shift its weight violently, sliding to the left and slamming into the ground with a thunderous cacophony of sound. It landed directly on top of one of the aggressive guard bots, flattening it into destruction. Four remained.

No sooner did that happen, the Arwing's battery systems began to run low, now unable to sustain the shields. There was only enough juice to start the engines now and only enough fuel to use the Arwing to get home. If they ran the engines just to run the shields, they would be wasting the fuel, although it seemed a far better option than getting hacked to bits.

The problem was, the main computer stalled out, due to a lack of energy from sustaining full shields in a maximized bubble, while firing the main weapon systems. The computer would take at least forty-five seconds to reboot and without shields, they were completely prone to robotic attack.

One of the sentries nabbed Krystal around her waist, dragging her out from underneath the fighter and lifting her directly up into the air. The claw-like arm attachments used for mining or tunneling through hard rock closed around either side of her hips, threatening to snip her in half. She struggled in its grasp, kicking her legs in an attempt to wiggle free but the machine had her completely trapped.

Fox quickly climbed out of the cockpit, leaping upon the top of the machine, trying to use the small cutting tool in his computerized gauntlet to make an incision on the back of the machine. He cut out a sloppy looking square, using his right paw to punch the metal section inward. He then thrust his paw into the fresh opening, which was still scalding hot, and grabbed a fistful of wires, yanking as hard as he could.

His muzzle parted to scream but his body was in sudden shock. Intense electrical current ran through his arm, into his torso, and into his other paw, which was holding the robotic monstrosity by a maintenance handle directly on the top. The current passed through his body, into his left paw, into the metal frame of the bot, shorting it out. It began to slump downwards, the voltage still passing through him as if he was nothing more than an extra copper wire.

As soon as his feet brushed the ground, the polarity changed and not in his favor. The current that passed through his body now touched the ground, causing every last strand of his fur to stand on end and his eyes to glow. The force of the electric passing through his body, into the ground, pushed air out of his lungs, suddenly, causing a gut-wrenching scream. The electrocution was complete, the short circuit causing Fox's body to be thrown clear from the backside of the overloaded robot, bouncing clean off the side of the Arwing.

Due to a special alloy that the claw arms were made from, to bore into rock more effectively, no electrical current touched Krystal. She watched in horror as Fox was flung from the back of the metallic monster, slamming into the Arwing and slumping to the ground. He didn't move. Two other droids moved in for the kill, nudging him first. Satisfied he wasn't going to get away, they both raised their scythe-like attachments, ready to impale him with a quick and grisly end.

Krystal's captor lurched forward, coming apart at the joints. One of the metal cutting arms ripped free at the assembly hinge, dropping Krystal to the ground. She quickly snatched up the hook-shaped arm and swung it with all her might. The pointed end sunk into one of the attack droids hovering above Fox's motionless body, tearing into the offender.

Due to diamond plating, it diced the metal body of the first robot, the momentum of her adrenaline-filled swing knocking the first robot into the second robot. She followed through with the swing, until the first hovering droid was cleaved completely into two halves. Cleft in twain, its circuitry exposed, the left half fell to the ground while the right half, now much lighter and off balance, began to rotate in mid air, its hovering booster now too powerful for it. The remaining half spun around in a rather amusing fashion, until it careened with the other metal enemy, sparks showering the area, until one exploded so close to the other, that both were rendered useless.

Only one remained. Fox was unconscious but alive, which she could sense. The remaining bot quickly snatched her up like the first one did, causing her to lose her grip on the scythe attachment. It clattered to the rock-solid ground, now useless beyond her reach. Krystal cursed in Cerinian tongue, being pounced by the remaining machine.

It shifted its pitch and axis, rolling about until she was pinned. Her back was flush against the ground, looking up into the optical sensory panel built into the front of the machine. She was looking directly into the eye of the soulless killer, her own eyes narrowed. The stare down lasted for another few seconds before the machine lurched forward. She could feel its weight growing upon her and gasped in fear that it might simply crush her instead of dicing her into ribbons.

It was then, that she noticed the dim illumination behind the optical panel growing completely dark. Fox's words of the robots only having a slight amount of charge, due to a very recent activation of the power, ran through her mind. If she didn't think quickly, the machine would finish powering down and crush her. It had to weigh at least three quarters of a ton, if not more.

System by system lost power inside the machine until the hover booster sputtered and died out. Krystal took a deep breath, clinching her eyelids shut, willing herself to concentrate. She attempted to make use of the technique that she had showed Fox back in the Hotel gym, on the sparring mat.

Chi-like energy passed through her, much like the electrical current had passed through Fox only a moment earlier. It absorbed the weight of the machine that pinned her to the ground, then reverberated through her body, outwards. The redirected force of energy was enough to cause the machine's weight to shift hard to the right, so that it landed directly besides her, instead of squishing her beneath itself.

The technique took her breath away, leaving her gasping for air like a fish out of water. She attempted to suck the air in, having the very breath knocked from her lungs. In an attempt to breathe once more, she rolled over onto her paws and knees, her head dropping to the ground, muzzle open, trying to suck in. It took another moment before the pain in her chest subsided and her torso relaxed. She drew in breath quickly, then coughed, gasping again. The moment passed and she flopped over to her back once more, panting.

She'd never had something knock the breath out of her lungs before and decided that such a miserable moment, although short, would be something she wouldn't soon forget. Her head lulled to the side, gazing over at Fox, who was also collapsed, just a few feet away. Her aching body, exhausted from the adrenaline surge she'd experienced earlier, screamed to react but it hurt to move. She used her telepathic abilities to determine that Fox was still alive and simply lay there, watching the rise and fall of his chest. She was glad there wasn't any more attack droids and thanked the fates for small favors.

Krystal decided that she would need just a few minutes to let the disorientation pass, then it would be up to her to get Fox stuffed into the gear cubby behind the seat and fly them back to Corneria. Now this was proving herself. Shame Fox was unconscious; she would rather that he could see it. No matter; when he wakes up on Corneria that would be proof enough.

* * *

**P**epper paced the Hospital floor, in front of Fox's bed. He was fine, but he sustained a few first degree burns and minor lacerations on his left leg, both his palms and right arm. The Doctor mentioned light exercise therapy for his right arm, where he had previously dislocated his shoulder and there were a few bumps and bruises. All in all, Fox was alive and the Arwing was undamaged, although it took a lot of explaining as to why the wing blaster assemblies were facing vertical. It also voided the buyer's warranty. Fox's stay would be only one night but it still had the hound in a bind.

Another half an hour passed and Fox's eyes fluttered open, the world sliding into focus. Pepper sat down besides the boy, shaking his head. "You've really done it this time, Fox. You took the Arwing on a test flight with your wing mate's shuttle, nearly trashed both and had a crash landing?"

Fox groaned softly, reaching for the remote to angle the bed up. Mashing his thumb down on the button, the bed began angling at 45 degrees, so that he was sitting up. The two exchanged gazes and finally McCloud began his explanation.

"We came across Wolfens and one of them attacked Krystal's ship. She was going down over MeteoLand and I put the Arwing beneath her shuttle, diverting all power to the G-Diffuser, so that I could cushion our landing. We turned on the power and that caused us to get jumped by reprogrammed sentry droids. It wasn't my idea of a theme-park ride, pardon the pun."

Pepper shook his head, patting McCloud on the leg. "You know your team member did a damn fine job of saving your life, two times. Then she managed to fly the Arwing back to Corneria, by herself. She got instructions on how to land it and did a great job setting it down on the runway; she deserves quite a bit of praise. You pick good squadron members, Fox."

"She did, huh? Where is she now?" Fox asked, wincing lightly, where Pepper patted. The hound pulled his paw away, horrified that he hurt the boy, then shook his head. "Sorry, Sir," Fox muttered. "I'm sore all over. I feel like I let her down by not being on top of my game, out there."

The General shook his head. "Fox, we all have off days. Just be glad that she was on point, this time. Your wing mate is with the team, out in the waiting room. You'll be fine, just be careful until your paws heal up. It looks like you have a pretty sizable gash in your palm, what's that from?" Pepper asked.

"I cut myself on this metal droid, while trying to pull wires out of it. I was trying to save her, ironic that she was the one in trouble and yet she turned around and saved me, instead, huh?" Fox chuckled, shaking his head slightly. He had bandages over his paws and over various parts of his arms and legs where he'd been burned or cut.

"Pulling wires out, eh?" Pepper chided, patting Fox on the side of his muzzle. The hound stood up, offering a shake of his head. "You nearly electrocuted yourself. Actually, scratch that," The war-dog mused, "You did electrocute yourself, but the doctor thinks it was only bad enough to receive those burns, not bad enough to stop your heart, obviously, or do anything worse. Anyway, take it easy, they'll let you go tomorrow."

"What about the people who rescued Andrew Oikonni?" Fox muttered, contempt becoming obvious in his breathy tones.

"That's a political fiasco. He's got full immunity on Venom. They won't turn him over," Pepper complained. "It's going to get like before," He added, referring to GreatFox. "The Prime Minister and defense Director believes that peace is possible and having massive ships like GreatFox, with huge cannons on the front… they don't really look all that good on our behalf. As soon as the refit is finished, Corneria wants you to take it elsewhere."

"And what's YOUR next move?" Fox asked.

"Pay incentives for military recruiters," Pepper chuckled knowingly. "I want to have a fully staffed military by the time Oikonni decides to get brave. Our intelligence suggests that he's going to try and claim rightful heir to the financially ruined empire left by Andross. If Andrew can somehow manage to restore the economy on Venom, we're in trouble because they'll back him one hundred percent."

"Are you kidding?" Fox snarled. "All it takes is making ten war factories and Venom's people will feel like they're on the road to recovery. Bomb factories, along with fighter construction plants and ordinance manufacturing centers will restore Venom's dying economy in 6 months. He won't even have to try. Not that Oikonni would be able to strategically position a base on something close to Corneria like Andross, but making a fleet that could man-handle Corneria's Armada, that wouldn't be good, to say the least."

"He'd have to be a massive idiot not to get Venom to stand behind him. Half of those idiots still look at Andross as a god-send," Pepper sighed, shaking his head. He gave Fox another tender pat on the leg then left the room, pausing in the doorway to add, "Feel better, son. By the end of the week, you're going to have to relocate GreatFox. It's a flying fortress and moving it will help the population to breathe a little easier. They're trying to reason with Oikonni by showing that we're non combative.

"Make him think Corneria will be a cake walk? That will just inspire him," Fox said with a groan of frustration. "Let me go and rip him apart," Fox asked.

"Just move the ship, Fox. If you want to help out Corneria's military, you can always sign up for it."

Fox gawked at Pepper then shook his head. "Call my team if, for any reason, you can't handle Oikonni's forces in a battle. I'll have my team there, within several minutes, and we'll handle it from that point on. For now, I'll get my ship out of your orbit, as soon as the refit in finished. I'm a little disappointed, though."

"Just worry about getting your team trained and ready to go," Pepper suggested. "You said something about getting Slippy back into the cockpit? Start training your pilots and, by all means, start running drills. It could be over a year before tensions between Corneria and The Oikonni Empire escalates to the point where we'll need you again. Go get your team some practice, Fox." With that, that General stepped out of the room, leaving Fox in silence.

Things were far more serious than Fox had realized. Just days ago, General Pepper was joking around, patting him on the back over Sauria, and everything was fine. Now Pepper wanted Fox to get his ship away from Corneria as quickly as possible and everything was starting over again, just like it did 8 years ago. Fox wasn't even allowed to join in the Lylat War, except under the Privateer - Self Defense clause, until Corneria was already losing. It made Fox's life difficult.

Back in the Lylat War, Fox had to make addendum charges to his bill to Corneria, adding a "times two" credit clause to each killed fighter, because Pepper wouldn't let StarFox fight until asked to join the fray, which put Fox's team at greater risk because they were fighting Venom who was allowed to amass full power. Had Pepper asked for Fox's help earlier in the war, it would have been a cakewalk. History had a way of repeating itself and now their most seasoned, experienced pilot, Peppy Hare, was retired. Fox cursed under his breath.

A few minutes later, Krystal and the team stepped into the room. Falco, Slippy and Peppy were behind her, circling his bed. Fox tried not to look embarrassed. It was rare that they were fine and he was the one injured. Krystal sat down on his bed, besides him, leaning to kiss his forehead.

He gave a light smile, placing a paw on her wrist and looking up at her for a moment. There was a wordless exchange, a simple conversation that consisted of an expression filled gaze, reciprocated by the other. Fox didn't need to be telepathic to understand the way she looked at him, and she didn't need to read his mind to understand the way he looked back at her. They both smiled softly, and the moment passed. In that short two minute period, the entire world worth of words was said in silence.

There was chemistry between the two of them, but it was too early for something more than friendship. Anything beyond a knowing nod and smile would be inappropriate. She saved his life, she gave him mouth to mouth, resuscitating him. He saved her from slamming into the surface of a meteor and snatched her from a freefall back on Sauria. She rescued the unconscious McCloud and brought him to a Cornerian Hospital without help. They were 'two for two', and both were beginning to trust the other implicitly.

Fox posed a question in his mind that he knew Krystal could hear using her ability of Telepathy. '_Are you in love with me? Can you love me unconditionally? Can you promise me that you'll never die on me? Can this work, between us?'_ There was silence. Krystal simply nodded. Fox thought about his question, wondering if her nod was because she was able to hear his thoughts or if it was a fateful sign of coincidence. He simply smiled in reply. There was no time for a relationship with Oikonni's escape to Venom, but perhaps in the future, if the StarFox squadron lived through it.

Breaking the silence, finally, Falco approached the bed, patting Fox on the shoulder. He'd glanced at the medical chart before doing so and made sure he was patting Fox on his uninjured, left shoulder. Fox reached his left paw up and took Falco's right hand, the two shaking their secret handshake, from the academy years.

They shook, then balled their hands to fists, following through with the intricate display of brotherly affection. "So, you remember it, huh?" Fox asked softly.

"Of course," Falco said. Inside, he too was impressed that they both were able to remember the handshake. Neither had used it for a decade and the fact they did it now was strange and yet it helped Fox believe that Falco was going to stick around this time.

Peppy had some books under his arm and placed them on the bed, opposite of where Falco was standing and Krystal had been sitting, now facing them. "I brought your two favorites and one you've not read yet," Hare mused, tucking the old-style paperback tomes besides Fox's pillow. Fox gave a grin and closed his eyes, anticipating Peppy's next paternal action.

Peppy, who had no children of his own, leaned forward and kissed Fox upon his forehead. Fox smiled softly, stealing a glance at Krystal again. She was moved by the fatherly display of affection and returned the smile. Fox reached to pat Peppy's arm with a light chuckle.

Next was Slippy who had brought a fresh change of clothes and sat them on the night stand. "So, Fox," said the frog, returning to his spot at the end of the mattress, folding his arms. "Looks like we finished securing the Arwing deal. I think we're going to have the refit finished in two days, instead of a weak. Pepper found a better crew and offered to pay the difference. Sounds like he wants to get us back in action as soon as possible. Maybe he'll send us to f-f-fix Andrew's political plans, huh?" Slippy then grinned, adding in a poor pun, "You know, throw a 'monkey' wrench in Andrew's well oiled political machine?"

"Very funny," Fox said, shaking his head. "No, that monkey will be his own wrench. But no, Pepper isn't trying to help us. He's trying to help the Prime Minister. Just pretend this is over 8 years ago. Do you follow me?"

Peppy frowned. "Are you saying…?" The hare asked.

Falco finished the sentence, "… that we're getting the cold shoulder because of the GreatFox is too militaristic for Corneria, again?"

"You're damned right," Fox snapped, tightening both of his paws into fists. "We're not going to join the war until Lylat is smoldering. I'm pissed off," He added, his gaze panning over each of his team members, counter clockwise. Once his eyes landed on Krystal, he closed them and sighed. "You think we can find Oikonni again with your abilities?"

All eyes turned to Krystal, waiting to see her reply. "No. I was never close enough to him, personally, to recognize his thought patterns from afar. But I suggest we start running patrols to practice flying and gather Intel. That way when things go down, we'll be in the 'know'," she told them.

"Good idea, but I want to do it in teams of two," Fox ordered. "Peppy is the most experienced but he can only fly in short spurts, so I'll have go with him on a few exercises. He can take you through the rings, then maybe put you through a field test. I'll have Slippy and Falco pair up, so that Slippy can get back into the field of fighter flying. Go get started."

"Now?" Krystal asked.

"Why not? Peppy, you up for training her until I'm back on my hind paws?" Fox inquired, turning to his long-time father-figure.

"I can handle it. But I'd like to field test her before I put her through the rings," Peppy replied.

"Any reason?" McCloud asked, raising his eyebrows.

Peppy shrugged and continued his explanation. "Timing. I want to find out more how Venom's resistance was crushed. Krystal can help with that. Don't worry, I can handle myself for my age. We're not going to be running and gunning, just doing a little role playing."

"If you say so. Be careful," Fox bade, reaching for one of the books. Krystal offered a smile then turned to Peppy. The two of them exchanged nods then left the Hospital room together. Fox glanced back to Slippy and Falco, half-shrugging, due to his sore shoulder.

"I'm curious about what they're up to?" Slippy wondered aloud.

McCloud gave the question some thought before answering. "Peppy has an idea that I wouldn't agree with. He'll wind up putting Krystal in a fair amount of danger, while I'd be too afraid to put a new member in the line of fire, because I'd want to go, so I can make sure she makes it back safe. I need to have faith in her abilities," Fox explained. "He was always a firm believer in letting a cadet get their feet wet on real combat. He'll make it easy for her, because he knows he won't be able to keep up if they get into things too deeply. I'll just have to trust him, he's never steered me wrong in the past, right?"

"You want her, don't you?" Falco blurted out.

"Dude," Fox snapped. "Give it a rest. I've already decided not to allow anything to happen until after this war settles down. If I let myself get too attached and she died in the line of fire, I wouldn't be emotionally fit to finish the mission. You guys would wind up hurt or worse, and I'd hate myself for it."

"All right, all right!" Falco said, putting his winged hands up, defensively. "Just a question. I'll make sure, if her and I fly together, that I'll keep her alive. I'm not quite so sure about frog-boy here. I know he likes to rush into things with afterburners and nothing changes."

"Hey!" Slippy scolded, putting his hands on his hips.

"I'm joking, Slip-ster, relax. C'mon. I'm dying to try out the two birds. Let's go fly. Fox needs a few minutes to himself, so he can take a cold shower and get Krystal off his mind, heh heh." Falco's teasing words caused the Wing Commander to smirk, opening one of the books that Peppy bought, pretending to ignore the avian leaving.

* * *

**W**olf O'Donnell turned to Panther, brows furrowed, his singular gaze narrowed. "Are you freaking joking?" He reached his right paw out, snatching Panther by the utility handle on the front of his flight suit, putting the felines back against the wall, several inches above the ground. Panther had to be impressed; after all, Wolf was lifting him up to the wall with one hand.

"Why boss, this is the first time you've ever physically assaulted me. I'm astonished," Caruso noted, his gaze lowering to stare into Wolf's face. After a moment, O'Donnell opened his paw, causing Panther to drop to his feet, landing gracefully as cats often did.

"I told you, if you're going to fly for me, no more assassin jobs. Choose your employer. I'm tired of this," the lupine growled in anger.

Panther's own growl was present in his words, but it was far more subtle. The guttural sound only surfaced when he pronounced hard consonant words, telling his friend and mercenary manager, "This one is very big. The other assassin didn't make it. This job is for triple the normal salary, which is a paycheck for all three of us. My last job as a killer, I assure you." His genuine tones and tender-sounding promises may have gone over well with women but it only pissed off O'Donnell even more.

"What the heck!" Wolf snapped, punching a hole into the bulkhead just inches away from Panther's head. The fist grazed so close to Panther's shoulder and cheek, that it made him flinch. The ovular slanted slits of his pupils narrowed even before he could squint his gaze to look menacing. Wolf grinned at his wing mate's attempt to look fierce.

"Fine, Panther. We'll knock off this buffoon and leave a stupid rose on the body. But after this, you move off of Corneria and live with us at Sargaso. I'm tired of not having a full team when I need to fly, simply because you're off making money on the side. It makes you unreliable. If you get a job I am interested in, we all go. Together. We split the pay. Deal?"

Another voice joined into the conversation, "Deal." Panther looked over Wolf's shoulder, seeing Leon Powalski approaching from behind.

"Deal," Panther repeated. He couldn't help but smirk. "Who runs Sargasso when we're out doing jobs and assassinations?"

"Ruffian. If there are problems, he knows to call me and I'll come back. I trust Ruffian. Now, who's your target this time, you idiot?" Wolf groaned, wondering why the moron was questioning his methods. If Panther wasn't such a good pilot, unlike Pigma and Andrew, Wolf would have never agreed to let him join StarWolf in the first place.

"Lionel Geoffrey, Prime Minister of Corneria. Think you're up for it?" Panther asked with a hint of challenge in his voice.

"You idiot!" Wolf groused. "If you kill the Leader of Corneria, General Pepper takes his place for the remainder of the term. Pepper will be leading Corneria into the war against Venom, do you really want that?"

Panther cleared his throat then answered. "Venom seems to think that the whole Planet will beg to back down from confrontation against Venom in ANY sort of political struggle. I seem to think that I would rather see Corneria have a better chance of defeating Venom, because of this. I'll take Venom's money in gold and weapons as payment only, since their money won't be worth anything after the war. Then we'll sit back and watch the planet turn to dust."

"Hm," Leon's voice caused Wolf to look over his shoulder. The bionic eye whirred and snapped into focus almost instantly. Leon grinned and added, "Panther does have a point for once, Wolf. Corneria leaves us alone, out here in Sargaso. Venom, if they came to power, would want to tax and tariff our work, they would want to own it, because Oikonni is trying to be as power hungry as his uncle once was. Maybe putting Pepper in power is a good idea."

"How do ya figure?" Wolf asked, turning away from Panther. The studs upon his shoulder plates passed only centimeters from the dark-furred feline's nose, causing him to flinch.

"Let's see, we get paid," Leon said, holding his hand up, counting off the pros and cons with his fingertips. "We give Corneria the leader it needs to ensure that the planet will have some sort of military for once, we stay in business without giving up a part of our profits, while making Oikonni think we're on his side, which keeps him from bothering us during the course of the war."

"I like the way you put it, Powalski," Wolf said, the consideration in his voice and the paw that came to his chin, putting a smile on Panther's muzzle.

"So you're in, boss?" Caruso finally spoke up, once more.

"Yeah. I'm freaking in, on this. Get to your ships. We have work to do. Let's go," he demanded.

* * *

**K**rystal looked down at the café table for a moment, then raised her gaze once more to Peppy. "What are we doing here, again? How is this part of a training exercise?"

"It's very complicated," Peppy explained, adding, "But I want to test your tracking abilities. I want to test your anticipation to danger and I want to test your concentration and ability to focus during widespread panic. That's a lot of voices screaming in fear for you to hear. If you can tune your telepathy to focus on the one over the screaming masses, we'll know just what your abilities and limitations are."

"What's the mission?" She asked, looking somewhat surprised. It sounded as though Peppy knew something huge was about to happen and while she couldn't sense that he was trying to take advantage of something catastrophic for the benefit of her training, she could sense that something was in the air. Something huge was about to happen, but she couldn't pin a fingernail on it. Peppy was doing his best to keep his mind clear, so she couldn't read him, also part of the training.

"What happens after that?" She asked.

Peppy tilted his head, reaching to push his glasses up his nose. "We take the Arwings out and test your tracking abilities. It'll be up to you to make this mission a success. Every experiment has a control, but you're the control, here. If we lose the target, we lose our chance. I have no way to reset the board and point out your mistakes, if you lose your queen."

"My…queen?" Krystal asked, confused. Again, Peppy kept his mind clear and relaxed. There was no way for her to read into the definition of his statement.

"It's a chess piece, Peppy explained. "The most powerful piece on the board is the queen. She's your best bet for offensive and defensive strategies but if you lose her, the game is simply harder, not over. The game doesn't end until the king is captured but without your queen, it's difficult to protect him and it's difficult to capture the other player's king. Not impossible, just difficult."

"Maybe you can teach me this game some day?" Krystal asked. She suddenly heard Peppy's thoughts in her head. '_I'm a vocal thinker, when I try to figure out my strategies. There's no way I could win if you knew what I was planning. Hopefully you'll make a good queen chess piece with that ability, on your own merit. We'll see, right?'_ He simply smiled in silence. She nodded twice and he nodded in reply, glad she could hear the thought. She was definitely the real thing. The team's new telepath.

"What's going to happen, today?" She asked. Her eyes cut around the area, from their table at the Café, trying to figure it out without her natural abilities. She wanted to be able to figure things out with her brain the way perceptive people, who weren't telepathic, could anticipate things so well.

Peppy took a deep breath before beginning his lengthy explanation. "Intelligence has intercepted a transmission from Venom. They're sending some assassin to take out the Prime Minister of Corneria, Lionel Geoffrey. The assassin will arrive and try to do his job, but Corneria is ready for him. The military has been ordered to let them escape, so they can trace the pawn back to Venom. Don't worry," Peppy said gently, "There's no way an assassin can march in and kill the Prime Minister. We're ready for it. When the assassin realizes that his mission is a bust, he'll run for his life and the Government will track him back to Venom."

"Okay so we'll also follow the assassin and that'll be your test for me, but how can you be so sure they won't succeed? Also," She added, "How does letting the assassin go help Corneria?"

"A few ways," Peppy answered. "First of all, they know it's happening so everyone will be ready. Second of all, the military is going to be role playing to guarantee the assassin narrowly escapes, without dying. That way we can pin the blame on Venom. It will give the government a legitimate reason to build a war-time effort allegiance with the other Lylat planets, before Venom can say a word in the matter. Oikonni isn't waging war against the rest of Lylat, just Corneria. It's a personal thing. The public has no idea, so the chaos and panic from an attempt on the Prime Minister will be genuine enough to be convincing."

"Why is all of this happening," Krystal asked Peppy, shocked and surprised. She was almost offended that any Government would allow things to happen a certain way to manipulate a situation to gain sympathy from allies, instead of diplomacy.

"It's complicated. We've been through this, Pepper knows it won't work. We're only letting the assassin get away, to ensure the information: that Venom is trying to strike out this early into the future war. It's complicated. You're not from Lylat," Peppy admitted apologetically, "So I can understand that you're a bit confused by all of this, but I've been through a 20 year military career. I've been through a mercenary career and trust me, I've seen it all," The rabbit told her. "Our system's first extra terrestrial being comes through and your first impression of us must be an awful one. But capturing the assassins will gain nothing. Letting them go will do much more and I have faith that Pepper's guards will keep Lionel Geoffrey alive and well. Nothing can go wrong; the guards are under strict orders to miss when returning fire and allow the assassins to escape."

Krystal just gawked at the hare. He really was going to be training her under the line of fire. She was surprised and yet she was excited. This was StarFox intelligence gathering and she was going to be earning her bread today. Fox may have been the meal ticket in the past but she wanted to earn her worth as more than just another pilot.

* * *

Next:

Chapter -9-: Plan B


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: _Wow, these chapters are getting longer and longer, as I get further into the story, leading up to the prequil of StarFox: Assault, the game. _

_I know everyone wanted a chapter without the rest of the team. It's a story about Krystal after all, and Chapter 10 is going to have it. As far as StarWolf, is O'Donnell really stupid enough to participate in the assassination of a world leader? We'll find out. What about Falco and Slippy? We find out right here. And as far as Krystal's training mission with Peppy? That's going to take a turn for the worst, right down excitement lane. Okay, I know, that was corny to say, but I really plan for this chapter to set the stage for an explosive chapter 10. I've got ideas on just what's going to happen, in 10,and I want it to be so good, that you can't stop in the middle, for a bathroom break ;)_

_Most of you may not know this, but in ALL my stories, I usually don't know what's going to happen next. I clear my mind, I sit down, put my hands on the keys and type without thinking. My eyes follow a half second beyond the dancing cursor and it's like I'm reading the story for the first time, wondering what is right around the very next corner. If the story, or any of my stories for that matter, are predictable it's because I must be predictable. Then again, I'll sometimes write while I'm in a weird mood and come up with something out of the blue that NO one expects. It's just ... my style, you know? Then I go back, read through it, make a word or sentence change, here and there. That sorta thing. But as far as Chapter 10, I wanted to make it all one big chapter, but I knew I had to stop where I did, tonight, so that I'm not mixing apples and oranges, here. Chapter 9 sets a stage and gives us valuable information on what's going on, and how Panther accomplishes his latest rose petal painted mission. Chapter 10, on the other hand, is going to be Krystal against the world, alone. No backup. It's going to be the thrill of her life and she's only going to survive by the skin of her teeth, if you know what I mean. I promise not to disappoint (and if I do, I won't let you completely down. Unless you're an anti-action junkie. For those of you who are romantics, I've been asked to do a sequal that happens AFTER SF:Assault, that details Fox and Krystal going out, or something. More news on that, later.) _

_For those of you who read my story, and new readers and those who have been leaving me feedback, I appreciate your insight. I've been told recently that my grammar is really looking pretty shoddy. If you come across a few examples, don't be afraid to point them out in the feedback section. Helping to show me where the grammar mistakes are and what the proper rules are will really help me to become a better writer. Any poor grammar that you find in quotes is most likely done on purpose. Not every character is going to speak like an English professor. The only character that should speak very proper is Peppy. General Pepper, of course, needs to speak properly as well, but we hardly see him as a character in this story. Krystal's wording would be the poorest, because she's learning the Lylat languages still, and only has her ability of telepathy to learn the lexicon from others, as it is._

_I set up this chapter so that Krystal has the ENTIRE spotlight in Chapter 10. It should prove exciting. She's from a world where everyone is open and telepathic. Now she comes to a system where deceit and trickery and subterfuge reign supreme. We see, now, how General Pepper becomes, more or less, the leader of Corneria during StarFox Assault. We see how prejudice thrives in parts of Lylat, something else that Krystal had never before experienced._

_All in all, she's seeing a great deal of things for the first time and this is, truly, her story. Also, for those of you who are very visual-minded people, I give you a little taste of Krystal on the beach, wearing little or nothing, for just a moment. It's nothing sexual, but for those of you who want to make a drawing of the scene, be my guest ;)_

_Seriously, though, we now see Krystal as a serious, intelligent woman. She can't ALWAYS be in trouble, after all. She's no commando, but she's certainly interested in proving herself as a competent pilot and ready to learn how to fire a blaster, as she does several times in SF: Assault._

_Finally, I touch a little on what people must think of StarFox, after such a long time of not being in the news, then a sudden mission success on Sauria. Everyone's a skeptic just like in the real world. Everybody comes up with their own opinions that deface the hard work a hero has done, making them out to be nothing more than a scam. Hopefully, StarFox will be able to change a few opinions, especially later when the Aparoids attack in the second game, lol._

_This chapter is on the edge of action but doesn't actually see any hard core excitement. However, I promise the next chapter will be FULL of thrills. I just had to write this chapter to set the scene for the action packed chapter 10. I promise it will be intense. Krystal has to prove herself and nothing says action like a testosterone filled scene, right? Anyhow, enjoy chapter 9! See if you can figure out what Plan "B" really means!_

-ken (or Kit, either way) x x x (Remember, always feel free to IM me, Email me, whatever. ROCKSTARTRAVISTYatAOLdotCOM, or just Instant Message "RockstarTravisty", with an "I". I love to hear input, it helps me give you guys what you want, as the reader and fans of Krystal/the story/starfox/ etc.)

* * *

Chapter -9-: **_Plan_ "B"**

**Each Land Master tank began to waver** from its material spot in reality. The first one began to fade, shimmering as the molecules disappeared, one by one. The atmospheric difference began to cause a soft wisp of steam and condensation which resulted in a watery shimmer, as the machine's molecules fell victim of the shifting flux of time-space directly around the hull of the tank. The first one began to resemble a gooey liquid mass, fluttering slightly until it was gone. The second one reacted the same way as the first.

The third and forth swirled into a sparkle of infinity, disappearing. The fifth one, however, was a great show. The Instant Transmission machine was used to sending or receiving one or two objects at a time, but sending a small fleet of tanks up to GreatFox was working the machine hard. The last tank crystallized. An ice-like substance that kept the shape of the tank once the encased object disappeared, leaving a hollow shell of ice that cracked and shattered, leaving tiny little, glass-like fragments on the ground. Slippy's eyes widened, approaching the broken sculpture and kneeling to investigate.

"Is… is it supposed to do that?" He asked the canine who was running the machine.

"It gets hot but it is projecting molecules through space, which is pretty cold, especially directly in the path of Corneria. GreatFox is in orbit but where it's at, its night time, so you're transmitting matter through the core of the planet and then into the cold of space, ultimately into the atmospheric controlled environment of GreatFox's flight deck. After so many objects, in a row, yeah, I'd say that's normal."

Slippy turned to Falco, who in turn, glanced at Slippy both of them stealing a glance at the rambling canine who worked the machine. Falco cracked a light grin, facing the worker once more and asked, "So you beamed a few tanks through Corneria, out the other side, through the atmosphere, and into GreatFox, right?"

"That's what I said, yeah," The scruffy poodle replied.

"You nearly lost both of us around the first time you said, 'molecules' dude. Are you all right?" Falco asked, stuffing his hands into his aviator jacket's pockets.

"Sorry, just nervous." His words were a little awkward sounding, as though he was trying not to laugh-snort. His attempt failed miserably.

"Of what?" Slippy asked, placing his webbed palm on the dog's shoulder.

"You guys are StarFox." The statement immediately caused Slippy and Falco to break out into laughter. It had been literally years since they'd had any fans. Falco fished around in his pocket for a pen, not yet pulling it out. The man swallowed, then finished his sentence. "Every time you guys are on an extended visit to Corneria, it's because someone was killed, a war is about to start, or the whole planet winds up going to hell in a hand basket. So, pardon me for being nervous, I just don't need someone dropping ordinance on this building because you guys are here, right now."

Slippy froze. Falco froze. They both realized quickly that they'd seriously misjudged this guy. He didn't like StarFox, he couldn't stand them. He didn't like mercenaries in general but StarFox was half notorious and completely misunderstood by many. Not everyone completely realized what StarFox's involvement with Sauria was, but during the mission itself, there was minimal coverage in the news on the planet, so as to keep public panic down.

Once Fox repaired the planet and left, the Media was finally allowed to show satellite photographs of the planet in pieces, half leading many to believe that the StarFox squadron personally caused Sauria to nearly be destroyed. No one cared that it was back together now, they just knew that Fox McCloud spent a few days on the planet and the next thing they knew, the television was showing photographs of the planet in chunks.

"I think we're done here," The man said, handing over a receipt ticket and nodding politely.

"Yeah," Falco muttered. "We're done here, let's go, Slippy. Maybe the next time someone or something attacks Corneria, we'll bring a camcorder and play the live feed on the news. I wouldn't want anyone getting the wrong idea," added the avian, turning to walk out of the warehouse. Slippy took a few steps, starting to follow, then stopped to face the dog worker, glancing over his shoulder at the departing Falco and frowned.

"What's wrong with us being here?" Toad simply asked.

"Have you seen your ship? The two massive guns on the front? How many people have a ship like that, military not-withstanding? The Lylat Wars are over, Mister Toad," The man explained. "You guys get to Corneria for a refit and within a few days of your arrival, we're in huge political tensions with Venom, who wants to fight, now. That hasn't happened in years. Where you guys go, trouble follows." He paused for a minute then added, "They hate you for turning them upside down 8 years ago. Their economy is destroyed."

"Didn't you hear? Andrew Oikonni escaped Cornerian federal prison. He's the one starting these t-t-troubles. He's b-bad news and needs to be put away for good," Slippy replied, shaking his head.

"I beg to differ, sir," The dog sighed. "You guys show up, he escapes. He starts a war, you wait until we're getting our tails handed to us, and then jump in and the problem is solved. Then you're filthy rich until you blow your money. How's that supposed to look to the typical Cornerian?"

Slippy gawked. "You think StarFox gets involved in conspiracies like that?"

"I don't know what to think. I was 17 when the Lylat Wars happened," said the worker. 'Space Dynamics' was written on the patch on his jacket. He glanced down and shrugged slightly. "That was about 8 years ago. I just know you guys haven't really been back except for a day or two, here and there. Yanno, when you come back for an extended time, we have trouble again."

"We've been broke, without jobs to do. We live on the occasional sorties when someone rich needs an escort or something, but that doesn't' give us enough money to buy tanks, clothes and fix our old ship. What do you want from us?" Slippy said. He rarely went off on someone, but he was shocked and dismayed at what half of the public opinion was on StarFox.

"That's another thing. Why don't you guys invest your money? People don't believe you guys are really as broke as you say, unless you're saving up to build weapons that cost a lot or Goddess-knows what," The man argued.

"We're mercenaries and fighter pilots! We're not financial experts, if we were, we'd have gone into business doing that," Came the voice of Falco, reproaching the two of them. "We should have done that, because then you'd really be in trouble when the Corneria Military screws the pooch," He said, making a crappy pun due to the fact that about 75 of the population was canine. It wasn't as diversified as Papetoon, Katina and Eladard. Most of the dogs of Corneria never spread out and settled down throughout Lylat, but the fact of the matter was, Corneria was one of the least racy planets in Lylat.

When someone moved into the area on Corneria, they were usually embraced as a friend where the over populated industrial city-planet of Eladard was the opposite. On the over-sized city-planet, many races segregated themselves without a word about it. There were sections called Little Avia, CanineTown, and a section of felines, known as The Hood. One could drive down the street and one block would be all skunks and a few raccoons, then the next block would be all dogs, followed by a block of nothing but ferrets.

On that planet, everyone worked their tails off to make ends meet. Pregnant, single moms worked in factories, putting in long hard hours to pay for their apartment above a roach-infested super market, and their litter of children, that all had to share a room or two. The fact of the matter was simple. People were too concerned with squeezing enough money out of their wallets to care about compassion and humanity.

The situation was so bad that, during the first Lylat War, Venom retracted their plans to attack the planet, at the last minute. They opted, instead, to leave Eladard out of the battle plan, all together and the planet was forgotten. Even Andross knew that ripping the planet in half would cause the population to snap and the poverty and looting would become so difficult to control that it would act as a thorn in his side.

Instead, Andross had opted to cut off Corneria's ties to the factories located throughout the entire city-planet and ordered them to build for Venom's efforts. Venom's involvement with Eladard hurt its economy further, with nearly-worthless Venomian currency. Lizards and Marmosets with bad attitudes started frequenting the massive planet-sized city and things got worse from there.

Wolf O'Donnell was from Eladard, as well as Falco Lombardi, Katt Monroe, Pigma Dengar, Ruffian and other shady characters. Falco was the only one out of those 5 to have turned his life around by attending a Cornerian flight academy and meeting friends who helped to make a difference. The problem was, having grown up in such a place, Falco wasn't afraid to punch a man in the nose for looking at him wrong.

He cocked his arm back, drawing his feathery fingers into a tight fist, but Slippy quickly reached for his arm, hooking his wrist at Falco's elbow. "N-n-NO! Falco, he just doesn't know what we're like on a day to day basis! That's not his fault!"

Lombardi narrowed his eyes. "He's a puppet of the liberalist media, who go from being your best friend to your worst enemy, behind your back. Some buddy of his will say, "Gee pal, you met StarFox huh? What're they like?" and he'll tell them we're huge buttheads. I don't wanna disappoint anyone!" Falco scowled.

"You want all that hard-earned money from the Sauria job to go into hiring an attorney, Falco?" Slippy tried to reason. Falco finally spun away from the Space Dynamics worker and sighed.

"Look, I don't know what you guys went through," The canine finally admitted, "But all I know is that no one here has ever hindered my opinions of you guys, so it seems like everyone agrees with me on the matter. What am I supposed to think? I was on the GreatFox refit team, the place was a filthy rat hole."

"Racism isn't very fitting in these parts," Slippy sad almost sadly, in reply to the "rat hole" remark.

Falco shut his eyes for a moment and took a slow, deep breath. Slippy stepped back, waiting to see what the bird would do, praying in silence that Falco wouldn't try to pick another fight. The Avian shook his head then frowned. "My two best friends and a hard working, well decorated veteran pilot put their lives on the line because the Cornerian Government wouldn't let us help until they had no choice but to accept help from a non-military source. If they didn't wait as long as they did, we wouldn't have nearly died repeatedly, on every mission from Corneria to Venom.

"Do you know how embarrassing it is, to have two fighters and an idiot chameleon following you, and your team mates are too busy trying to stay alive to help? I've NEVER been chased before that. It was hard and you have no right to act like a jerk to us," Falco snapped.

"Excuse me," The man said, "I work for a living, too. And trust me when I tell you that I cause far less trouble than-"He suddenly found himself interrupted. Falco made another fist, silencing the guy, then continued with his own rant.

"I wasn't finished, dude." He lowered his fist, putting his hands back into the leather jacket pockets, before continuing. "I wasn't asked about a choice in this. I went into the flight academy and my only options were to leave my best friend's side and work for a military that was letting Venom come right in and walk over them, or stand up for my own opinions. Fox McCloud and I both felt that Andross had no right to be banished. He was a murderer and a jerk. We publicly demonstrate the desire to stomp his butt and we're asked to leave? I did what I had to do for SURVIVAL, Fox was more business-minded and asked for compensation."

Falco shook his head, adding, "I made a home on Papetoon and what happens? Imperial scows run amuck over the planet, you've got lizards shooting laser guns at me, you've got Andross' empire stomping the crap out of Papetoon and its economy. After we kicked their tails, we finished GreatFox and used it to put a boot print in Andross' forehead. So quit being ungrateful. Now, c'mon Slippy, we're leaving. I don't like to hang out where we're not wanted."

"Wait," The Dock Master said, holding a paw up in defense. "You can't expect everyone to know your story; you guys never talk about it."

Slippy shook his head, "We're not egomaniacs or something. We might ask that Corneria leaves Venom to the pros, us, but we certainly don't brag about what we did to Corneria. …Or anyone else, for that matter! We don't want trouble, we'll be leaving, Sir."

The guilt-stricken hound shook his floppy-eared head. "Look, how am I supposed to know what you guys go through, and how do you plan to change the minds of half of Corneria. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, for every five minds you change, two are going to hate you for becoming too popular, or whatever other reason. I'm… I'm sorry."

Falco ran his fingers up through the spiky feather tuft upon his head, groaning softly. "All right, good enough. I'm sorry I tried to swing at you. Can we just call it a night now?"

"Yeah," The man said, passing the two members of StarFox something that was in his inside jacket pocket. "They're not out on the market until next month. The brochures, I mean. Nothing I can do beyond that, I guess." He paused for a moment, his cell phone distracting him. "Hold on."

Falco took the paper and opened the flaps, looking at the beautiful display of guns inside, including a shoulder mounted heat seeking rocket launcher. Slippy came up besides him, taking a look as well, letting out a long, slow whistle at the Space Dynamics weapons.

"My sister, are you serious?" Said the poodle, clinching his other fist. "How hurt is she?" Another pause, then he shut his eyes tightly, sealing the tears in. "How many? Four… is… a lot. I understand. Yes, dad I understand. Yes, sir." He listened for a moment longer then closed the phone, taking a long slow breath.

"Four what?" Falco said, tilting his head, looking up from the gun pamphlet. For all Falco could have known, it could have been broken ribs and the poor girl could have been in a car accident.

"It's complicated. Her ex-boyfriend and three of his thugs beat her… very badly," The quiet canine muttered between his teeth. "They're apart of some gang, I don't know… The Street Kings or something."

Falco blinked twice, handing the colorful pamphlet to Slippy then punching his fist into the opposite palm, sneering. "My old gang's rival group. This is illegal, and I usually don't involve myself in that kind of thing, but I hate seeing a girl get hurt and I know the Street Kings do that kind of crap for no reason. I'll make you a deal."

"Anything. I'd love to get them back for her, you name it," the man told Lombardi. Slippy's eyes bounced back and forth like a tennis match, not liking where this was going.

Lombardi cracked his knuckles, asking, "You get me that shiny red rocket launcher, right on the front of that little folder. I want the very first one. Is it heavy?"

"First of its kind. It's designed to be stable to fire yet weighs only nine pounds, empty. I'll get you one if you waste those four thugs, before you leave Corneria next," The poodle promised, keeping his voice hushed, trying to show his resolve. "I know where they like to hang out, too."

"Perfect. Slippy, I want you to go up to GreatFox and see if those tanks showed up, all right," Falco said in a very monotone voice.

"Why? I've got to come along and make sure you stay out of trouble, Falco." Slippy folded his arms and frowned. The thought of getting free weapons directly from the night shift manager was suddenly appealing, but he had to make sure Falco didn't get in over his head.

"Because, Slippy, I need an alibi." He pointed straight up in the air, directing Slippy back to the GreatFox. "We'll catch up as soon as I get done. Just give me a few hours. Maybe less. Besides, I don't like people to see what I used to do to people like the Street Kings. Go on, I'll meet up with you. Do _not_ tell Fox or Peppy about this. Swear to me."

"Okay," Slippy said with a groan. "I promise. But you'd better make Krystal take the same promise. You were with me the entire time," Slippy said, taking the little booklet of weapons and heading for the door. "I'll just… be… on GreatFox, making sure the tanks arrived safely. You were with me the entire time," He repeated.

Falco nodded approvingly, "You do that, bud. Yes, I sure was. See ya there." He then turned back to the canine and folded his arms. "All right. You drive, we're going to where this guy used to hang out with her. You owe me."

"You really did change my mind about you guys," The night shift manager whispered softly. "I was wrong and you guys really do go above and beyond to help people in need. My… car is this way," he said, leading Falco out through the door on the other end of the warehouse.

* * *

**P**anther Caruso directed his gaze from Wolf to Leon, shaking his head softly. "Are you two sure? I realize this is going to get all three of us in deep crap, if we're spotted. You two are easily identified, if I'm caught, they won't link me to either of you." 

"Shut up," Leon said, checking the power cell of his blaster. "Let's do this, how do we go about dispatching a world leader?"

Caruso tilted his head, replying,"I've been doing research, talking to one of the ladies that works as a body guard for the big cat. Isn't it ironic? A lion is the Prime Minister of a planet that's nearly three quarters canine? That's a cat for you, running the show, leaving the dogs to do the work. You know," Caruso blathered. Wolf put his paw over Panther's muzzle, narrowing his gaze, placing a pistol against the side of Panther's nose.

"You talk too much," Wolf sneered. "I'm trying to get done before we miss our chance. So, you got yourself into the pants of one of the guards, good job, where's Geoffrey Lionel going to be, when?"

"His motorcade leaves with a group of armed guards, for a newscast in thirty minutes. He won't be on it, it's a decoy," Panther said. "It's a trap meant for Venom's assassin. Yes, they're expecting us. Anyhow, he'll be taking a very plain car with two guards, who will be dressed in tuxedos, he'll be the driver. That's who we take out."

"They KNOW we're coming?" Leon snapped, angrily.

"And we know of their ambush, so this will be easier and worth the triple pay," Wolf reminded his long-time friend. "Let's go. Panther, just this once, since this is what you do, lead the way. This is just another mercenary job for me, but you're the professional in this department. So, get moving."

Panther growled in pleasure, "Sure thing boss. Let's move." The group made their way from the overpass at the edge of town, down to the street and crossed the lane, making their way up to an empty intersection. Panther lifted a paw, "This is the back way to the press conference. They'll be coming through this very intersection in less than ten minutes. One of us have to lay in the street, acting as if you'd been hit by a car, I suggest Leon."

"Why me?" Powalksi groaned.

"Because Wolf has a reflective bionic eye implant patch," Panther explained, "And anyone with good eyes will see the reflective patch and it won't work. Wolf," the feline said, turning to his employer. "Hide in the alley across the street. As soon as I approach the car, you come from the other side. Make sure you don't miss, you'll have to kill both guards; I'll take the Prime Minister and finish the job. Leon, are you ready?"

Wolf shrugged, nodding to Leon and heading for the two old buildings across the street. Leon threw his hands up, in disgust. After a moment, he finally laid down in the middle of the street, curling his tail around himself, trying to get as comfortable as possible, keeping his weapon well concealed.

Panther crouched down in the grassy island that separated the westbound lane from the eastbound one. They didn't have to wait long. As soon as the four door sedan came around the corner, Panther began walking out into the lane, putting his paws up, to stop the car. His eyes scanned the car as it slowed, counting three, the driver was a lion. He grinned.

With a simple nod of his head, Wolf approached from the far left, the car coming to a stop. The Lion opened the door, peering out and Panther was quick to start talking. "I'm sorry, sir. I just saw this man hit by a departing car a moment prior, I couldn't get his tags, and I saw you coming, I didn't want you to accidentally hit him, he's still alive, I'm waiting for the ambulance," Caruso lied. Lionel Geoffrey stepped out of the car, after putting the parking brake on, and approached the fallen body, cautiously.

As soon as he was about three feet from the car door, Wolf opened fire, using armor piercing rounds. The back windows became riddled with holes, but didn't shatter and both guards slumped over. Meanwhile, Panther grabbed the Prime Minister by the back of his neck, pushing him to the ground, pulling a blaster out and putting it to Lionel's head. "There's been a change of plan, Prime Minister Geoffrey. My apologies, but you're worth a fortune."

* * *

**P**eppy and Krystal exchanged gazes, sitting across the street from the location of the press conference. The little café had closed, but they were both sitting at a table outside, relaxing. The Prime Minister was ten minutes late and people were growing antsy. 

Suddenly, Krystal gasped in surprise. Her jaw dropped. Peppy blinked, asking, "What's wrong? What is it?" She pointed at something over his shoulder. The rabbit turned around, seeing a large monitor on the side of a building, turning his chair to face it. On the screen, it showed a sedan that was shot up, two bodies slumped in the back seat, and a rose sitting on the driver seat. There were a few hairs identified as the fur from a lion's mane, and people wailing in the streets.

One of the reporters on site asked a wailing woman what she saw. There was no sound for the monitor on the building, but the closed captions worked just fine. The lady told the reporter, "Three men, they came and they killed the lion and dragged his body down the road. He's dead, oh by the Goddess, they shot him, and he's dead!"

Peppy's jaw dropped. He stood up, his chest burning in pain. They failed their mission and there was nothing to do about this now. The Prime Minister's plan to ambush the assassins had failed and now they were in trouble. "This must have just happened. C'mon, to the Arwings, maybe we can find them and tail them back to their hide out. Let's go."

* * *

**A** short time later, Peppy and Krystal had secured Arwings, heading into the atmosphere. Krystal closed her eyes, searching the depths of her mind to see if she could sense something, anything. 

"Please tell me you can find them," Peppy said, still unable to believe that the Prime Minister was assassinated. He flew alongside of her fighter, the two new models handling like a dream.

"I, I sense something, but they're far from here. But they're in a hurry to get away and one of the thought patterns I recognize," She explained, trying to search her heart to understand the distant minds, racing away to the safety of their haven.

"Familiar to you how?" Peppy asked over the radio as the two Arwings raced after the fleeing trio.

"It's the one who attacked me and Fox, back in Meteo. I can sense him, for sure. We have to hurry, I can feel that they're gloating about something to do with monetary collection, I think they're the assassins."

"What else can you sense about the group," Peppy said, engaging his after burners, Krystal doing the same to keep up.

"One of them is the one who slammed into my shuttle. I can't read the rest, although I get a strange image from one of them, but I can't tell how many there are." Krystal paused. It was the strangest image, emanating from the psyche of one of them. "A flower. Corneria calls it a Rose, I believe. I remember that one, because it's quite beautiful and they sell them everywhere as some sort of symbol of love," She explained. "Let's hurry! I can't tell how many there are, but I can sense one thing for sure, they're guilty, because I can sense they just came from Corneria, they're reporting to Venom and they are gloating that they were responsible for the altercation that led to an assassination."

"My Goddess," Peppy said as the Arwings hurried to catch up with the three blips on sensors. "They're Wolfens. The red rose, that's the sign of the assassin who was always on TV last year. If my memory serves me correctly," Peppy groaned, adding, "The hit was a professional one, by a guy named Panther something. Let me check the database."

Peppy opened a channel to the GreatFox, pulling up a visual of Rob. The robot whirred about, facing the view screen. Peppy was almost positive he saw Slippy in the background, but a double check showed that the background behind Rob was empty. He shook his head, rubbing his eyes with his left paw, then said, "Rob, I want you to run a search on a guy named Panther, who was an assassin, who's trademark sign was a red rose. Can you get me the last name?"

"Panther Caruso, according to the news clips from 7 months ago and several other clips, 9 months ago. It's rumored that he flies with StarWolf now," The robotic being explained.

Peppy groaned, slapping himself on the forehead. "StarWolf is helping their new member to pull jobs? This is insane," He quipped. Krystal glanced out of her canopy at him and frowned. "There were rumors that several other small teams were flying Wolfens now, but it's safe to say that bit of gossip probably didn't mean a great deal."

"I can tell that you're tired, Peppy. Do you want to head back to GreatFox and call it a night?" Krystal asked. The old man was winding down but he really didn't want to let StarWolf get away. The entire scene was a mess.

He knew he couldn't make the entire mission and would have been just as valuable if not more resourceful on the bridge of GreatFox, guiding her from the communicator. There was no way that he was as quick and agile as he was in his hay-day and he would have probably gotten shot down and caused her to be held back more than if she were alone. He wanted to try and send Slippy with her, but he would have been just as burdensome without real help. The only person available was Falco.

The old hare glanced at his watch then frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah, I'll head back to GreatFox and Falco can meet up with you at a nav-point. Continue on, but stay back far enough that they don't know you're following," Peppy explained.

"Roger that, Peppy. You can help me just as well from the bridge, I have faith in you," She said, after reading into his thoughts on the situation. He gave a warm smile and headed back towards GreatFox.

Krystal continued on alone. Something didn't sit right with the situation in which she was now involved. She increased the thrust of her fighter, transferring power from the main guns to her long range sensors, keeping the Wolfens at the very edge of her sensor scope. They weren't heading for Sargasso, but instead, for Aquias. It was an odd choice, for sure.

Up ahead, the planet was a tiny dot, the size of her thumbnail. The three fighters descended upon the planet, leaving her to hang back and handle this mission on her own. She didn't realize that she'd already impressed Fox enough to want her on the team. She never read that thought from his mind. She felt that if she could have a large hand in stopping the assassins, she would truly prove herself.

Once the Wolfens had landed, she approached the orbital pattern from the other side of the planet. What she saw took her breath away. A massive red ship with silver and white trim; it boasted four huge engine boosters and the symbol for Andross' Army, which was on those stupid machines back on Meteo.

"This is Krystal, checking in," She said into her radio, after dialing in the frequency for GreatFox. "They're on Aquias and I believe Oikonni is here, as well. Where's Falco?"

"You're going to have to return to base," Peppy said with a sigh, from his position on the bridge. "I can't get a hold of Falco, his radio is off. Slippy was on the flight deck and he looked surprised to see me, then blabbered some story about Falco going on a date while he got things ready. I have no idea what these silly kids are up to, Fox told them to train."

"I hate to be a silly kid, too, Peppy but I'm going to investigate further. I'll call for backup if we come to that bridge." Her use of the old Cornerian phrase was slightly incorrect but Peppy didn't hinder her, let alone correct her. If she felt the situation was safe, who was he to argue?

Normally, he wouldn't let someone who was untrained go solo but with her ability to sense others thoughts, she would know if she was or wasn't detected before anyone else, and so for Krystal, he made a rare exception. "Please, be careful. I'll contact General Pepper and see if we can't get a bounty price set up, incase you manage the capture or execution of these guys. Remember to use extreme caution, this is very serious."

"Understood. And…," She trailed off then added, "Thank you for the opportunity. I probably wouldn't be needing Falco anyhow. It looks like this will turn into a ground mission. Any gadgets that Slippy can manage would be appreciated, however."

"Understood. I'll have him whip something up, for you. We'll get a field kit together and have it air dropped to your location, using a long-range probe," Peppy told her, pressing a button on his control panel to call Slippy up to the bridge. He was still a little upset that Falco suddenly wasn't available to help, but the fact of the matter was that Slippy was now more important.

* * *

**A**ndrew Oikonni hooked his thumbs into the belt of his red uniform. It was fitting, he felt, to have a red and yellow uniform, but it needed a cape or something. His plan was working. Without the Prime Minister, Corneria was leaderless and if everything went according to plan, they might give up by dawn. 

Panther was alone. It was assumed that he had no help in this job and the two nodded to one another, meeting on an Island in the midst of the Seventh Sea. The exchange was brief and Andrew was easily able to provide the payment in actual Gold and Platinum, so that there was no worry over the worthlessness of Venom credits verses the credits of anywhere else. _Every_ planet accepted Gold and Platinum as currency. Oikonni even kept his promise of a triple payment, handing over three briefcases full of heavy precious metal.

The delighted charcoal furred panther exchanged a firm handshake with Oikonni, adding, "It was a pleasure to do business with you. Don't destroy Corneria city so badly that I can't find a first class restaurant still open. Good luck with your little war."

"Just remember, I am the one true heir to Emperor Andross," young Oikonni said, releasing the handshake, "And I will bring back power to the family name and my Empire will crush Corneria into the dust!"

Panther Caruso nodded in a half jaded fashion, patting Oikonni's shoulder grinned. He pulled a high endurance strap from his pocket, hooking it to either end of one briefcase and shouldering the strap comfortably, then picked the other two cases up in his left and right paws. "This never happened. I rarely meet with an employer. Consider yourself lucky. Be seeing you," Panther mused, turning to walk away. The beach was endless in either direction and he simply began to walk down the shoreline, alone.

Oikonni frowned thoughtfully, beginning to walk away from the water, back to his small travel capsule, hidden in the brush, that was up off the beach, about thirty yards. Once he left the scene, another craft flew into the area, staying so low that it nearly touched the ocean.

The Arwing, waxed and shiny, landed on the far end of the island. The canopy opened and Krystal climbed out of it, opening a communications frequency with GreatFox.

"This is Krystal. Oikonni has left and Panther is just beyond visual range of my location, over?"

Her reply was met with Peppy's image on the screen. "So visual confirmation was established? They already met, exchanged payment, and Oikonni is leaving?"

"Yes, he's gone. Panther was paid and is now leaving the area on foot. I'm going to leave the Arwing on a sandbar and anchor it. It seems as though the tide is coming in quickly, so having it under water will guarantee that it won't be found."

"Clever, but if you need to make an escape, you'll have to wait until the next low tide, tomorrow morning," Peppy said, advising against the idea.

Krystal shrugged with an air of indifference. "But if they come across me, they won't have proof that I'm flying recon for StarFox, let alone just flew in to spy on them. I can persuade them to believe I am a native of the Island, if I have to. Have Slippy send my cloth and sea-shell outfit that I got from the Light Foot tribe on Sauria. If spotted, I can really look the part of an Island native."

Peppy thought for a moment, then nodded and told her, "That's pretty resourceful. The field kit will be sent to your location, but it's going to take thirty-five minutes to arrive. Stay low until then. Remember, StarWolf is dangerous. Don't offer to get too close. They've already murdered the Prime Minister. They're armed and they're obviously deadly."

"Thank you for the advice, Mister Hare. I've got to hurry before the tide comes in. Krystal out." She closed the transmission and hopped up onto the hull. Within the short period of time since her landing, the sandbar was already under water and the waves were lapping at the backside of her fighter. She knelt down on the fuselage and closed the canopy tightly. With every incoming wave, the water rose higher.

She walked to the nose of the fighter, standing on the tip. It was only fifteen feet from the beach and she didn't want to get her clothing wet. Finally she shrugged the problem off and began to undress. Krystal took off the suit, now scantly clad in simple undergarment. She balled up the clothing and walked back to the cockpit. If they found the Arwing, a woman's outfit in her size would link the craft to her, so she decided against stashing the bodysuit there.

After a moment of thought, she walked back to the nose of the fighter and laid it flat on the hull. Dropping down to the water, which was now waist deep, the little blue vixen opened a compartment in the exposed belly and pulled out a cable used as a multipurpose harpoon and tow line.

That done, she opened up another compartment, in the belly of the fighter, up by the nose cone and manually released a massive, heavy bomb from the track. It slid off the rails and splashed into the water, soaking her from head to toe. She tied the line around it, then used her paws to dig the sand out from underneath the Nova Bomb. It took several minutes, the tide coming in quickly around her, but she managed to half the bomb half buried in the sand, within about twenty minutes.

With that accomplished, she closed both the compartments on the Arwing's belly and grabbed her uniform that still lay atop the fighter. She lifted the bodysuit above her head, to keep her dry, and walked back towards the beach, wading through the water that was now nearly up to her shoulders.

Using her wet tail, she made sure to cover the paw prints in the sand, waving the thick blue brush behind her and making her way up into the foliage ahead. Within minutes there was a soft hiss followed by a crushing sound of nearby trees. The field kit had arrived.

She dashed through the palmetto trees and bushes until she found the probe sitting snugly against a large rock, surrounded by several trees and tiny little brown rocks with hair on them. Laying her clothes on the large rock, she picked up one of the little brown fuzzy stones and shook it.

Something inside sloshed like water. Krystal blinked twice and smashed the brown object against the large boulder and it shattered, splashing a milky substance on her paws and stomach. After a moment, the curious vixen lifted her paw to her muzzle, licking her fingers. It was a bland tasting sort of milk. The chalky white coconut fragment on her fingertips was a bit sweeter, to her. "Interesting," She mused softly.

Wasting no more time, she pried open the Probe and retrieved the seashells and dry cloth fabric. She put her other uniform in the attaché case that was inside the probe's cargo compartment, knowing she'd come back for it to hide it later. The probe could be thrown in the water, when she had time to do so. Right now, she had to go back down to the beach and wash off the sticky coconut cream before it matted her fur and became cumbersome.

Once down at the beach, she stripped off the undergarments, tossing them to the ground with a wet slapping sound. She knelt down in the water, making sure every remnant of sticky cream was washed of her fur then walked back up onto the sand, getting the sea shell bra attached, followed by the cloth around her hips. It was sewn with a crotch piece that she pinned to the simple skirt, adjusting it on her hips, so that it wouldn't come loose.

After she was dressed, she slipped her paws into the sandals that came with the cloth and shell clothing, securing the leather straps around her ankles and tied them tightly, securing them to her hind paws. Krystal picked up the wet bra and panties, taking them back up to where the probe was, ringing them out tightly, so they were now simply damp. She hid them in the front compartment of the brief-case like container, then pulled it out of the probe, laying it in the brush.

Finally, she carried the metallic remains of the probe down to the beach and pushed it into the water, letting the backtow of the current carry it out a few hundred feet before it began to sink. By the time she was finished, the Arwing was now under water and she was ready to make camp.

Fox would have probably worried himself to death if he knew she was doing a solo mission, but backup was something she could worry about later, when she had things in order. Now to hide the field kit, make a primitive looking camp and start her recon mission. It was exciting to think about, but she knew she had to be careful.

* * *

Next: 

Chapter -10- "Tribal Girl Remix"


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: _Wow! Over 1400 hits, now. Dang. The Curse only has 308, and that's been up since February, lol. Ah, the power and popularity of Krystal, no? THANK you, readers! I really didn't mean to make these Author's Notes so darn long, so I'll keep it shorter in Chapter 11, I just wanted to thank some people in this note and explain where some of these ideas came from. _

_This was supposed to be a chapter about JUST KRYSTAL. However, I read my feedback remarks like an unconfident, needy, OCD, clingy fanboy. I latch onto every word you people say, to better determine how I should write these stories. I worship the emails that read, "FFBot: REVIEW FOR (story name)" in the subject line. Heh. So, when I saw that one of the readers looks forward to seeing Falco bust out a can of whoopass, I felt it's best to write the chapter about both Krystal and Falco, tonight. I wanna give the readers what they want! Sure, everyone wants a story about JUST Krystal, but if they're so involved in the plot that takes place between Adventures and Assault, that they wanna see what Falco's up to, then I'm only TOO happy to deliver. Seriously, until I saw that reply, I was honestly going to just have Falco show up a chapter or so later, and leave the readers to assume what happened. So, thanks to that review, I added Falco. I took the opportunity to hint at Falco's time with Katt while he was on hiatus away from StarFox, which coincides with the Nintendo Comic that was released right before SF: Adventures was released._

_Anyhow, in this chapter, we see that Krystal doesn't take any crap and neither does Falco, but Krystal lets her heart and conscience play a role in her decision making during missions. She gauges who's a threat and who's not then acts accordingly. It's not that Falco doesn't have a conscience, but he certainly doesn't need it in this chapter._

_See if you can remember the cameo from StarFox64, who plays as a minor character, here. Also, I end this chapter in a cliff hanger, because I promise I'll have chapter 11 done in record time. I'm so close to finishing this story, I'm trying to deliver the goods before jumping back into my other fan fics, which are progressing well. I've got nearly finished chapters on ALL my other fan fictions, so they'll all have updates, by the end of September as well, if not earlier. Yay'n stuff!_

_To those of you who have been leaving feedback and expressing their thoughts on the story, good or bad, I APPRECIATE YOU! I hope you all liked how I fixed the issue on her age a few chapters back. I felt so clever, lol._

_Remember, Krystal's not a commando; she's a resourceful telepath who wants to prove she's not some damsel in distress to Fox McCloud. You're all about to understand why General Pepper was pretty much seen as the leader of Corneria in SF: Assault. His title is either General or Prime Minister (or president or whatever), and they still call him GENERAL, so I'm writing as if his leadership position is a temporary thing, sorta like a Vice President taking over while the President is not around. The way Namco wrote the dialogue, it really left a lot of room to expose storyline conspiracies, past meetings between some of the characters, recently arranged standoffs and character developed opinions on situations or other characters that we're not let in on._

_I hope my version of things is a believable one! If my two MAJOR novel-manuscripts (in the works) are published and wind up New York Times best sellers (after an editor completely rewrites my Faulkner-esque writing style), then I'll have more clout to ask Nintendo to be given the rights to the License so that I can detail the adventures of StarFox between the games. While I highly doubt that will happen, I'm an optimistic dreamer, heh. Please enjoy chapter 10!_

_-K_

* * *

Chapter -10- "Tribal Girl Remix" 

**Krystal sat down at the edge of a** clearing. It was a great position, able to see anyone come into the area with ease, giving her a vantage point. She pulled the briefcase into her lap and opened it, looking over the gear. Two days of food rations, two days of bottled water, a first aid kit, a blaster and her staff. It was in its compacted form, diagonally in the case. It barely fit and even worse, it was difficult to pull it out, but once she freed it, she looked it over for a moment, obviously pleased that Slippy thought to add it.

She wrapped her paws around it, willing it to extend with the grip button just behind the fulcrum. It was a massive extension to her natural chi-like ability, but that's what it always was. It had the ability to magnify that internal force ability. Fox was good with it, but she was a professional in comparison.

A shadow cast from something large above captured her attention. Soft green eyes flitted upwards and she gasped in surprise, seeing a ship that was slightly larger than a fighter or shuttle. It passed over the clearing, followed by two more, setting down in the distance. She glanced back down, into the field kit pack and tilted her head. There was a shoulder holster for the blaster, folded up on one side.

She took a moment to put it on, making sure it was secure, then put her blaster into it, shouldering the first aid kit across her other shoulder, crisscrossed over the gun holster; finally, she closed the case and picked it up, stashing the food and water just a few yards from her camp sight. The vantage point at the edge of the clearing was abandoned, to make her way towards the other end of the island, to see what was going on.

It wasn't a tiny island that was for sure. Over six miles long, four and a half miles wide, the Island was a super intelligent place for StarWolf to have staged their plans. It was high enough that the amazing tide didn't envelope the Isle over night and that meant that it may have been high enough above sea level that there could be a network of tunnels beneath the sands.

Krystal knew that for something to be designed this way, it was probably someone's hide out or something. She couldn't decide if she sensed something beneath her, or if it was her feminine instinct, but she knew there had to be caverns or tunnels beneath her feet.

Staying on the outskirts of the clearing, she passed through the trees, staying low. With blue fur, it was difficult to blend into the green foliage but the area was void of people, which made things easier for the time being. Within a few minutes, she traversed to the next section which held another clearing, this one was manmade.

Three troop transport shuttles sat on a bulldozed runway, the Venom troops loading up and setting up a base camp. She knelt down lower, trying to open her mind and listen to their thoughts. Some were indifferent. Some believed that they were only here to hunt down Cornerians. The being in command knew something more.

He or she was a guarded soul, keeping their thoughts locked away, with training. She wanted to know what their mission was and found it difficult to penetrate his mental defenses. Most of the troops were lizards or marmosets but a select few were slightly more exotic races.

Two men were chameleons, one was an iguana, and another was a fierce looking wolverine. The only other non-venom born animal she saw was a Zebra, who wielded a large weapon in his arms. She couldn't tell what it was, having never seen such a weapon before but it was quite impressive.

The equine lowered his Gatling Gun to adjust a few straps that went over his shoulders, then picked it back up, with ease. The weapon appeared to weigh over 60 pounds, but he carried it as if it were only 20.

The Venom language was far different from Cornerian, more difficult to correctly enunciate but based on the same root of use. It was harsh; more aggressive to use and speak. She could sense their intent and allowed her natural use of telepathy to become the coveted link that brought her the ability of communication and understanding. Their words became clear to her as they spoke, as if she'd always known the language, to some extent.

"…Find StarWolf and retrieve not only their ships but their personal effects. It is believed that they are carrying three briefcase-like containers that are filled with Gold and other incredibly expensive metals. These belong to Emperor Oikonni. They're going to be used to repair the Venom Economy and StarWolf stole all three cases from the Emperor. It's our duty to get them back. Any questions?"

Krystal, from her hiding spot, simply blinked. Oikonni paid Panther to assassinate the Prime Minister, then ordered his men to steal the money back and steal the Mercenary Team's ships and their gear? Truly, there were people in Lylat that broke her heart.

The vixen decided that a telepathic community's inability to use subterfuge over their own race kept every one of her people honest. These Venom people were absolute scum, on the other hand. The most manipulative a member of her race could be, was to bat their lashes, think the word, 'please?' and get their way. Here, there was things that were factually said by another, and things that would factually happen, that conflicted with the information garnished. Just because someone made a promise didn't mean they weren't going to keep it, let alone have any _intentions_ to do so.

The captain of the squad leaders, a middle aged man named Camen, approached his commander and they exchanged words quietly for a moment. The troops didn't move, but several of them thought Captain Camen was an idiot.

"Camen, here, has just informed me," Said the Commander, a regal looking ape, who obviously cared about their personal appearance, with a clean shaven face, before adding, "that your objective targets have made base camp two miles from this area. Get with your squad leaders and flank them, as per your plan. If you execute your plans flawlessly, we will be out of here first thing in the morning. I do, however, expect for StarWolf to put up enough resistance that we may have to kill them. I prefer to keep them alive, so remember to keep your weapons on stun!"

Camen nodded to the Commander, then walked through the lines of troops, looking each one over, before stopping to turn and salute. The lines of men fell into their squads, falling out as if they had rehearsed this over and over. They were highly trained military and her job just became a great deal harder. She watched for a moment, noting the way these men moved, the way they grouped themselves and choreographed their actions.

Krystal got down on her belly, making sure to stay in the bushes, then wrapped that thick, furry blue brush up around herself, using said tail to keep the sound of her communicator from being heard. Once Peppy's voice became audible, she whispered in reply, to let him know to keep it down as well, on his end.

"Venom has brought three ships here. There are about 38 men, 2 of which are high ranking, the other 36 are troops. They're in 3 squadrons of 12 which break down into what I can visually see as 6 groups of 6. Those groups split into Alpha and Bravo, three a piece. Each of three has their own call group, from what I can read on most of their minds. How can I go up against 36 armed men?" She asked, before adding an additional inquiry. "Should I take out the two in charge, get proof that StarWolf assassinated the Prime Minister, destroy their ships and have Fox and Falco come and collect them later?"

"Whoa whoa," Peppy replied on the other end, in soft tones. He was able to reduce the volume on her transmitter, from the instrument panel on the GreatFox. "Relax, take a breath, rookie. Don't feel overwhelmed. You've got three things on your side. Also, we need to find out why they're there and work from that point."

"Go on, Peppy, enlighten me," she said with a half grin.

Hare adjusted his glasses, but she didn't have the holo-vid emitters active on the communicator. After his pause, he continued. "First of all, you're a female who's dressed as a primitive native. If they spot you, they'll think you belong there. You won't be interrogated as a spy, and if you are, you should be able to use your telepathy to tell them what they wanna hear and make the situation go in any direction."

Krystal had to agree with him, there. She also knew she could take care of herself, but there was no way the team could send her backup now. The area was too secure to fly an Arwing out to the Island. Unless there was an emergency, in which case they could send help in one at a time, with the Blue Marine Sub.

Peppy continued, "Two, they don't know you're there. You're alone. If they catch you, it's easy to scare them and say that you have a huge team in a submarine, just off the coast, or you could tell them that you are alone and know nothing, but because it's just you, it's unlikely they'll even see you, if you keep your head down. Slippy had a gadget installed in the staff that is programmed to cloak you and change your looks. He recoded it without the knowledge that you would be surrounded by Venom troops, but at least it will make you resemble a camouflage-furred version of yourself. That should help you get around without your blue fur being spotted. It will blend your fur to the color of your surroundings."

Krystal didn't even know they'd set that up and was thankful for it. Her largest worry was that her blue fur would easily be spotted, stalking through a green background. It wasn't quite a jungle, but it was close enough to one, that only laying down kept her completely concealed. Knowing that her staff now cloaked her fur to look like whatever color she was lying upon, she now had the confidence to finish the mission without asking for an extraction.

"And three, you have a good support team," Peppy said with a soft chuckle. "Now, this is a sneaking mission, Krystal. But now that Venom is there, it's up to you to determine a reason. Know anything yet?" The elder Hare asked.

"They're here, because they think StarWolf stole this money from Oikonni and that they don't care about the restoration of the Venom Economy. The people in command are here to collect it, take their ships and gear and either kill or capture them," Krystal explained in a whisper, talking into the microphone built into her communicator that was clipped to her ear.

"This could get messy. We can't let them make StarWolf disappear; it's our job to capture or kill StarWolf, ourselves. If they manage to kill StarWolf, see if you can't blow up their ships. We'll get paid for the job credit," Peppy explained. The cold fact was, StarFox was a mercenary outfit and hard work, as well as time, was quite simply, money.

With a war brewing, StarFox needed all the money they could get to have things in order. Krystal finally decided that she was going to attempt to wage a guerilla war with Venom, blame it on StarWolf, then deal with the three mercenaries. She could easily play the manipulation game on a level that wasn't quite so dishonest as people like Oikonni.

Her best bet was to sabotage the Wolfens, the Venom trooper transport shuttles, then help the two sides go to war with one another. From there, it would be up to her to finish whatever was started, get her gear and go home. It was more than she'd ever gone through before, but it would prove to Fox, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she wasn't some damsel in distress.

She wanted to become pretty good at using a Blaster and promised herself that this mission would be as successful as possible with the smallest margin of error. Because no one knew she was here, she had the advantage. Most importantly, she had Peppy and Slippy to help her complete her objective tasks. Then it wouldn't be long before Fox could come by, maybe help her double check the area, then she could go home to a hot bath and try that Chocolate thing that Fox talked about.

Krystal was thankful that she'd gone a day or two without sleep at the beginning of the week because the night before this mission, she had a great rest. She knew it would be a long mission and she couldn't let her guard down and rest was important. She'd slept well enough the night before, that she probably wouldn't feel tired if she tried to stay up over night.

She crept through the grass and bushes, flanking the runway strip until she was parallel to the three ships. Camen and the commander were still there. From here, she could tell that the Commander was actually a female, after all. They spoke for a moment, exchanging meaningless words, then Camen nodded his little green head and began to jog off, after the departing troops.

With only the commander left in the area, Krystal began to creep from out of the bushes, coming up behind the middle shuttle. She quickly opened an access panel that had some sort of cautionary looking decal painted over top. Jackpot; she made quick work of pulling out a bunch of wires and cracked some sort of cylinder that looked important, closing the hatch behind herself. She made the same 'repairs' to the shuttle in the front of the trio, then headed for the one in the back.

She knelt down, peering beneath the shuttle, but didn't see the Commander's feet. The ape was attractive for a gorilla but from what Krystal had saw, a few moments prior, the chick looked as though she could have pulverized just about anyone in a fist fight. Krystal couldn't sense anything in proximity and began working on the last shuttle.

Krystal worked the access panel open, when a shadow moved over her form from above. No sooner did her eyes lift, the massive Commander dropped from the top of the shuttle, pouncing Krystal to the ground. The vixen gawked upwards in horror, her jaw flopping open. The gorilla snatched the primitive looking girl up by her neck and slammed her against the shuttle hull.

Krystal pushed her paw into the access panel, gripping a fistful of wires and holding on tight. The Commander suddenly shifted her weight, pivoting on her left foot in an attempt to throw Krystal, head over heels. The wires ripped but kept Krystal from being launched down the runway. She fell to the dusty ground, on her hands and knees only a few feet away.

"Do you make a habit of sabotage, or is this just vandalism to you?" The female Gorilla demanded.

"You and your ships are not welcome here," Krystal said in a poor dialect. Her Venom was already broken from lack of experience in using it, which helped make her story believable.

"That's cute," The woman said, narrowing her eyes. "I'm Tasha G. Rilla. Your attack on my shuttle makes you an enemy of the Venom Army," She added, pulling a blaster from her hip holster and placing the barrel in against the back of Krystal's head.

Krystal suddenly kicked her leg out, catching Tasha in the shin, but her body weight was so great that it didn't do anything but make the Commander chuckle. Krystal had her staff in the compact form, held against her chest by the holster strap and grinned inwardly.

She slipped it out from the holster strap, beginning to kneel up when the ape suddenly hit Krystal between her shoulders with a massive fist, putting the azure fox flat on her stomach again. Without warning, Krystal's body lurched up into the air, powered by the simultaneous extending of the staff weapon and use of its ability to launch a person high up into the air.

Normally the staff's ability to do this was used to send its user up to a cliff or something, but Krystal used it offensively, causing her to collide with the Gorilla so hard that it knocked the woman over. The vixen tucked her legs beneath herself and forced her body weigh to shift, so that she went end over end, doing a half summersault and landing on her hind paws, on the top of the shuttle.

Krystal then returned the same action Tasha Rilla performed, dropping down in an attack. Young Krys was a bit wiser to her opponent, now. She descended upon her opponent, using its super-earthquake attack, slamming the end into the Commander's shoulder, easily rendering Rilla's right arm useless.

Tasha G. Rilla, Commander in the Venom Army, was far from defeated. She took a backswing with her massive left paw, knocking Krystal's body back, so that the vixen's lithe frame slammed against the side of the shuttle. She slid down, dropping to the ground, landing flat on her tail.

"Does it smart, dear?" Asked Commander Rilla with a sardonic snicker. Krystal pointed the end of her staff at her opponent, unleashing an icy blast but she was exhausted and the wintry attack wasn't concentrated enough to freeze the attacker.

After a short moment of being disoriented, Tasha snatched Krystal up by her neck, held in the ape's left hand, high off the ground. The tiny bodied Cerinian struggled, kicking her legs but it was no use. The Staff was brought against Commander Rilla's ribs as well as another strike against a pressure point but nothing seemed to work.

"So what's your story, my pretty?" Tasha asked with an amused grin.

"You're attacking those men to get money for Venom, when Venom's leader just left here, after giving it to them for services rendered," Krystal said. She cursed herself for telling the truth, but it was just natural to her to do so.

"NO kidding, but no one needs to know that," Tasha sneered. Krystal's eyes narrowed. She hated the manipulative ways of these people. She quickly used the end of her staff to knock the blaster out of the Commander's right paw. While Tasha's right shoulder was crushed, she had never dropped her weapon. With her right paw partially numb, the blaster was easily knocked free of her grip.

"You disgust me," the smaller of the two women said, placing the tip of her staff to Commander Rilla's throat. The ape gripped the center of the staff in her left palm and tried to snap it, but the staff was made of a metal and alloy combination that was the strongest known combination on Cerinia. It didn't even bend.

"What in the heck is this made of?" Tasha mused. Krystal used the moment of distraction to strike again, charging it one last time, with the last of its energy, to boost the two apart. With Krystal's back against the side of the shuttle, the staff did the opposite, throwing the gorilla across the runway.

Several yards away, Tasha knelt up, weakly grumbling, "Who _are_ you?"

Krystal smiled slightly, standing up and approaching the fallen ape. "I'm a member of StarFox, that's all you need to know." She decided she could tell Commander Rilla, it would be the last thing the Gorilla would find out. Krystal hooked the end of her staff in the Venom officer's belt, dragging her back towards the shuttle at the back of the line, then pried open the missile tube mounted on the side and grinned.

"What are you doing, are you crazy?" Commander Tasha shouted. No one was around to hear her plea and Krystal gave a playful shrug.

"I can't let you people start another war, so I'm doing what I can to stop you," the little blue vix explained, picking up Tasha's Venom-issued blaster. She took a few minutes to figure out how to change the settings and maxed them out, setting it to charge. Krystal shoved the charging blaster inside the missile tube and began to walk away.

"Come back here! You don't know what kind of trouble you're in!" shouted the ape. "I am Commander Tasha G. Rilla of the Venom 302nd battalion and you won't get away with this! Not even StarFox can stop Venom from crushing Corneria, this time! Only a Miracle can stop the Empire from finishing off the rest of Lylat!"

Krystal continued walking. She gave her staff a twirl then mashed the button on the shaft that caused it to shrink. The telescoping qualities of the staff did their job and she slipped it beneath the strap of her blaster's holster once more. She continued her leisurely pace into the bushes, anticipating the explosion, keeping her wits ready for the blast.

She appeared stoic when the Blaster burst, causing the stock of missiles to blow, causing the shuttle to detonate in a massive flash that was followed by a thunderous explosion that could surely be heard by everyone on the entire Island. The other two shuttles were knocked over, damaged beyond repair.

The explosive force caused Krystal's fur to take on a wind-blown look, her hair taking on a look of attitude and a slight grin touched her muzzle. It wasn't that she was a killer. She was proud of her ability to fight with the same courage and passion that StarFox fought. She descended from a long line of proud and noble warriors that hailed as a bloodline of Royalty on her world. She felt she was able to make her family proud, had they been watching over her from the heavens.

* * *

**K**rystal of Cerinia made her way clear across the Island and, in a stroke of luck, stumbled across the Wolfens, all of which were covered with bushes and palmetto leaves. She closed her eyes and opened her heart. Her mind's eye couldn't detect anyone nearby and so she decided it was safe to work. 

Each of the three canopies were opened and she found the latch to opened the fuel tanks, contacting Slippy for a brief rundown on how to drain the fuel from all three. Once her task was completed, she closed the cockpits of all three fighters, replaced the way the shrubs were laid across the fighters, so they looked undisturbed, and went back into hiding.

A group of three lizards walked into the area, following a dusty trail and talking quietly amongst themselves. Krystal uncapped the bottom of her staff, replacing the fuel cell with the spare that she kept there. It was one Fox didn't know about, because he'd never been trained on using the staff the way it was designed. Once it was fully charged again, she activated the camouflage visual generator that Slippy had added.

She gave the staff a spin, building up momentum, then took a hard swing. The pole came from out of no where, as far as the lizards could tell. The shaft slammed into the lizard that was on point, breaking his nose. A blaster rifle thumped softly to the dirt. The other two lizards got into an evasive position, looking left to right quickly, but couldn't see anyone.

She kicked her left leg out, catching one and simultaneously brought the staff down against the solder on the right, knocking them both back. She spun the staff above her head, then brought it straight down over the first lizard, dispatching him. She then drop kicked the second, landing gracefully in a half crouched position, taking two shots of the staff's fire-blaster weapon, simultaneously taking out the third lizard.

Within a few seconds, all three of them were down. The Camo-ability was dropped. Krystal beamed brightly, opening a channel to Slippy immediately.

"Slippy here, got yourself stuck again, Krystal?" He asked with a grin.

"No, I just wanted to thank you" Krystal said. "Your stealth invention for the staff is amazing. I don't know how you're able to figure out foreign technology so easily, but you're brilliant and don't get enough credit from the rest of StarFox."

"No, Fox gives me tons of credit, but what can I say?" Slippy chuckled. "We were best friends in school, back before his dad passed. Fox is a good friend, he appreciates me, and in return, he saves my butt when I'm in trouble. I saw a huge explosion on the Island, everything all right?"

Krystal beamed again, replying, "I took out their Commander and blew up their ride. They're not going anywhere for quite some time. I'm sure I'm not quite as good as Fox was, when he was fighting on Sauria, but I'm going to see if I can't at least try."

"So far, so good! Call me if you need me!" Slippy said, closing the channel. Krystal dashed off, heading east. Three lizards lay in her wake. Four down, 34 left, not counting StarWolf.

* * *

**W**ith Fox injured, Peppy and Slippy running a recon-mission-gone-wrong, and Krystal surrounded by Venom troops up to her ears, Falco was fulfilling a promise. The poodle dropped him off at a brick building with a metal door in a back alley that was locked tightly. 

Lombardi pounded on the door for several moments until someone answered it. It was a larger bruiser, tall as could be and mean as hell, itself. The guy was a rat; his tail was longer than his legs, resting on the ground behind himself. He wore studded bracelets and looked like he enjoyed trouble. Falco recognized the guy as one of the old Street King members, who'd been with the gang for at least 15 years.

He looked the same at 34 as he did at 19. Falco, now 27, put his hands on his hips and smirked. He really hoped the guy recognized the Avian, but with huge publicity in StarFox, Lombardi had his wish granted before he even had to make it.

The rat gasped, going for his gun quickly. Falco reached out, placing his hands on the man's wrists and applied enough pressure that he wasn't able to pull the gun out of its holster. The old school raptor quickly head butted the rat in the face, before a quick uppercut was dealt, making short work of a Street King gang member. It was quick, right in the doorway, and Falco knew he was already on a roll. Only three remained, counting the boyfriend who started this whole thing.

On the way over, the poodle described what the ex-boyfriend looked like, so that Falco could refrain from breaking his neck. The poodle wanted the guy to be taken the court and have everything happen legally, but the problem was, Falco didn't make any promises that there would be any survivors. If the guy lived, then it was fate. That's how Falco felt about things, at any rate.

He stepped over the rat's body, picking up two hand guns on a workbench to the left. He gave each one a quick spin, first the left, then the right. Without even checking to see if they were loaded, he pointed them behind himself, pulling the trigger. Both guns went off, quickly putting an end to the fallen gang member.

"Guess they're loaded. Not like the Street Kings to leave unloaded weapons sitting around, I suppose," Falco mused aloud. He lifted the weapons once more, waiting by the wall for a moment. The door swung open and a Setter stepped through. Just as the dog passed through the doorway, Falco used the butt of his right hand gun to hit him in the side of his head.

The Setter flopped forward, having lost balance from the attack. He spilled forward, taking a bullet from the weapon in Lombardi's right hand, right below his left shoulder. A hole in his chest nearly large enough to put a fist through spelled certain doom for the second gang member. The canine crumbled to the floor in silence.

"This is going to be easier than I thought," Lombardi chuckled, giving the two weapons another spin, first the left, then the right. He passed through the next doorway, keeping his guns ready. What he found inside was discouraging.

While it was four Street King gang leaders that roughed up the Poodle's sister, it was obvious that a solid number of gang members used this spot as a hang out. Over 6 armed thugs were standing in the room, their guns drawn and waiting for Falco to step through the archway.

Falco acted before his eyes could even widen, diving backwards, through the door he'd just stepped through. His arms extended, fingers working to depress the triggers as quickly as he could manage. Once his back hit the floor, he used his right foot to kick the door shut, before they had the chance to return fire. The instantaneous scene replayed in his mind, from the point where he began diving back, bullets gushing from the twin pistols like a geyser of death, to where his bullets slammed against a target on the other side, followed by his backside crashing against the ground.

His mind processed the information just a split second after his instincts helped him to act, making the world seem as though it were all happening in slow motion. Once his foot was strategically used to kick the door shut, everything rushed forward and time seemed to speed up into normal speed, once more.

Bullets riddled the door, leaving pockmarks in the surface, none passing completely through. Inside the next room, one of the six men slumped back against the wall, fatally injured. The five remaining were comprised of the same races that most Street King Members seemed to be; mostly lizards, marmosets and a few canine types, made up their ranks, and this group was no different.

Falco kicked his legs out, arching his back, so that the smooth maneuver gracefully brought him to a standing position. He gazed around the ratty looking workshop where two bodies were in the exit and the dim fluorescent lighting gave a twilight sort of feel to the atmosphere.

Lombardi's eyes landed on several important objects on a workbench across from the one where he'd found his guns, a few moments earlier. Not only was there a crate of illegally powered fire crackers, probably used for drunken fun, but there was a pair of foam earplugs sitting on the countertop.

His ears were already ringing so badly from an indoor shoot out, that they were next to useless for the moment, so using earplugs put him at no measure of further disadvantage. He snatched them up quickly, squeezing them between his finger and pinky while using the other three fingers to hold his gun. Once they were pushed into his ears, he picked up the crate of fireworks, stuffing his left pistol into his waistband.

His right gun was wedged into his beak, picking up a wielder's torch. This workshop seemed to have all the important tools. He flipped the flame on, turning the gas nozzle down so that it was now nothing more than a glorified lighter.

The resourceful Avian was usually given credit for rushing into a fight without a plan, but Falco was actually smarter than some cared to notice. He kicked the door at the back of the shop, knocking it right off its hinges. With a hard grunt, Falco heaved half of the crate's worth of fire crackers into the room, unlit.

He then ducked out of the door, waiting for a few seconds while five sets of guns were fired in reply. He took a rocket shaped piece out of the remaining stash of fireworks, quickly scanning over the label. "Danger! Concussive blast! Extreme fire hazard, USE CAUTION!" Lombardi grinned, lighting the end of it. He counted to five then tossed the rocket into the doorway, ducking down around the corner from the door and cupping his hands over his well-plugged ears.

A few seconds went by and an incredible explosion was heard. The fiery blast caused by the rocket shaped firecracker was intense enough to light the rest of the ordinance that was lying on the floor, causing another string of explosions. Shouts were heard, followed by one lizard running through the door, his clothes enveloping him in a fireball.

The lizard stumbled over the two bodies in the exit, landing outside in the alley, rolling around to try and put out the flames. After a moment, the third body in the exit came to a stop. Falco craned his neck, spying the motionless being who was still on fire.

"That guy's goose is cooked," Lombardi joked softly, using his foot to smother the blow torch that had fallen to the floor when he cupped his ears. The remaining crate of firecrackers was forgotten and he spit the blaster out, snatching the weapon with his right hand, pulling the other out of his pants with his left.

Falco strutted into the next room, where the last four guys were either unconscious or fatally wounded, acting like he owned the place….

* * *

**…K**rystal's eyes then widened, surveying the carnage she'd caused. Seven more lizards and apes were down, no one even so much as moving. She skillfully twirled the staff off of her right arm, flipping it about with the muscle of her left wrist, then lifted her paw, simultaneously shrinking it back to its smaller size, sliding it under the strap of her holster and bra, so that it was secure against her back. 

She knelt to one knee, using her sense of smell to determine the exact location of those two remaining adversaries. With seven down, there were still two men in the area. They all traveled in groups of 3, which meant there should be nine people on the ground before she could feel safe. Until then, she felt as much like pray as she did like the predator.

Krystal placed her right paw to her heart, lowering her nose just a bit, those soft sea-green eyes fluttering shut. She could sense that she was being watched. She was in someone's crosshairs. Scary thought.

A gasp erupted from her lips as she realized what was about to happen. She could see the thought patterns of the gun toting equine and, as quickly as she'd put the staff away, she pulled it free once more, activating the force field to protect herself. The kneeling vixen was surrounded by an ovular blue light. No sooner did she activate the shield, did her breath catch.

Tiny round marks dotted the liquid-like field directly in front of her nose. Not just a few dozen, but hundreds in a matter of a second. The Gatling Gun spewed nearly a thousand rounds in just a few seconds, all of which were absorbed into the force field as if the now-harmless bullets weren't even there at all.

The zebra stepped out from the bushes, approaching her. He never took his finger off the trigger, simply pounding the soft blue shield with round after round, emptying the magazine of five hundred rounds in approximately twelve seconds. He stopped just inches from her shield, his eyes widening when the gun clicked empty.

"Weapons dry, nothing works on this little blue bi-" His plea for help into the radio was interrupted by Krystal, who used her staff to suddenly take his legs out from underneath him. He hit the ground hard, the Gatling gun tumbling to the dirt. She gave the metallic rod a twirl then placed the tip against his nose.

"Call them off," She ordered. The equine shook his head angrily. Krystal shrugged slightly in reply to his silent refusal to obey her command, then unleashed a fire-blast, taking him out. One left in the immediate area. "I gave you a chance, you should have taken it," She said to the downed foe.

Something spiked in the extra sensory part of her brain. She wrapped her paws around the staff tightly, and stood up and parted her ankles, to get balance, then swung the staff with all of her might, employing the Dahn Daju ability she'd shown Fox. All of her mental energy was transferred into the rod, causing it to shimmer in blue just as it connected with a target.

She didn't even look where she was swinging. She swung at the approaching thought pattern, emanating from the 9th foe. He had dropped from a tree branch, trying to pounce her, but her well timed swing connected with his body so well that the chi-powered homerun swing knocked him clear through the forest. She didn't even know where he landed, or how far she'd sent him. All she knew was that she couldn't sense his thoughts anymore.

Krystal's shoulders heaved softly, panting from exertion. Her body would be aching for days after she wakes up, tomorrow, she just knew it. For now, she had a job to do. If she did a good job, she could worry about achy joints and muscles from the bathtub on GreatFox. The sun was already starting to get low in the sky, creating an orangish-red mass to sit on the horizon.

* * *

"**D**on't you know what it means when the sky turns red like that?" Camen complained. 

"No, that's a red sky at sunrise," One of the soldiers said. "Don't argue with me, Captain Camen, my father and grandfathers were sailors. No one's dying, except StarWolf," The marmoset noted.

"What do you know," the chubby green Captain snapped, "You're just a dumb monkey. I have a bad feeling about this, suddenly." Camen lowered his gaze to the sandy trail they were walking down, fidgeting nervously.

"No offense, Captain Camen, but how did you become a Captain? You're an idiot, sir," The monkey mused in reply.

Camen balled his fists up and said, "I'll have you know, in the Lylat War, 8 years ago, I engaged StarFox in Area6. They dispatched my wing commander in one shot, and I narrowly escaped. After regrouping with a larger squadron to hold the last line of defense, they wasted over half a dozen capital ships and I escaped intact." The scene quickly replied in his mind, shouting, _'are you there? Emergency maneuvers!'_ to another pilot, taking immediate control after his wing commander was destroyed.

"So you were promoted for narrowly surviving. Did you ever wonder if that was luck?" The soldier inquired with a chuckle.

"I'll have you know that I was promoted because my black box recorder showed that I took command without hesitation with a split second decision that saved me and my wing mate. So shut your mouth, mammal," Camen demanded. The marmoset shrugged with a grin, then stretched, offering a yawn.

Suddenly, the chimp stumbled back, landing on his tail. He looked up at Camen with confused eyes, sanguine marks on his uniform shirt glistening like rubies. Whatever knocked him down packed enough of a punch to rip through him before he realized what had even happened.

Camen looked around in confusion; he didn't hear any gun going off and couldn't see anyone. The soldier flopped back, his eyes fluttering shut. He struggled for a moment to keep them open but he was gone only seconds later. "Don't shoot!" the lizard cried.

After a moment, his ears picked up the sound of rustling in the bushes. He turned to face the noise, raising his arms in defeat. After another moment, a tribal looking blue vixen came out of hiding, a wisp of smoke emanating from the half-dozen barrels of the gatling gun. It was much like the one she'd picked up at Space Dynamics a few days ago, that had captured her attention. She'd been far enough away, that with the combined use of her staff's force field, no one even heard the shots.

What really impressed her, was the fact that she only gave the trigger a quick squeeze. Camen glanced down at the soldier and that was the first time that he noticed bullet holes riddled everything from the monkey's chest to the trees they stood near. He looked over his shoulder and gasped.

Bullets had pretty much left holes in everything except Camen. Once again, just like in Area6, he was lucky and unscathed. "I can see you've lucked out in the face of death twice now," Krystal said, sensing his thoughts on the matter. She tapped the gatling gun button playfully, causing the main shaft to rotate, the barrels spinning without firing. They whirred softly, slowing to a halt once more. Had she kept the trigger pressed for just a second longer, they would have spit out six bullets almost simultaneously.

The threatening maneuver caused Camen to drop to his knees, waving his hands above his head, "I'm unarmed! I swear!"

"This is quite a gun. The little barrels mechanically spin in a circle and spit out a lot of ammunition until the box is empty," Krystal said as if she were friends with the guy. "I've only held something like this one other time, the other day. It's nice to fire one, they're so light."

"They used to weigh over 50 pounds and would knock you on your butt," Camen muttered. "But now they're made with lighter metals and composite alloys that make them as strong as old fashion steel without the weight."

"Thank you for the education," Krystal told him through a soft smile. "I can't let you tell your men I'm here. I'm sorry, but I have no means of taking hostages," She added. "You've got to be dealt with," She explained.

"B-but, I don't want to die! C'mon, give me a chance!" Camen said.

"Stop begging, Camen," She said. His eyes widened.

"How do you know my name?" He asked shyly.

"It's a talent of mine," She said, lowering the massive gun to the dirt and pulling out the blaster that was in her shoulder holster. She pointed the barrel at his chest and blew him a kiss. "Any last words?"

"Don't kill me?" Camen asked politely. Krystal pulled the trigger and Camen flopped over in silence. She knelt down besides him, placing her ear near his face. He was still breathing. The blaster was set to its highest stun setting. He would probably be out cold until tomorrow afternoon. She put the blaster back into her holster and lifted the gatling gun once more. She could sense that he was nearly harmless anyhow and someone needed to live through this ordeal to start a horror story about the situation.

Thinking better on the situation, she went knelt down besides him once more, laying the large gun on the ground and searched his uniform pockets for pen and paper. He was prepared with both items. She drew the StarFox logo on a piece of paper, since she was still learning how to read and write in the Lylat languages. Stuffing the paper and pen down the front of his shirt, she stood back up and carried the Gatling Gun down the sandy path.

Twenty-five soldiers left, with no leadership to guide them. It was time to visit StarWolf and bring them into the battle without getting personally involved until the numbers were dramatically reduced. She hurried off in the direction of the assassin's thought patterns. She shuttered involuntarily. She could sense that particular one was a stark womanizer. What a turn off. She had another two miles to cover, before she would be near StarWolf's camp. There was a lot of things to accomplish before the sun set.

* * *

**F**alco couldn't believe his eyes. The gruff looking dog described by the poodle was someone he recognized. His heart beat wildly and anger clouded his judgment, lifting both pistols, which each had one bullet a piece, left in their chambers. 

"These last two rounds are for you," the avian snapped. He couldn't believe his eyes. The jerk off used to be a member of The Space Hot Rodders Gang, back when Falco was still a member. Not only that, it was the same chauvinist idiot who started dating Katt, ruining his chances of a relationship with her.

"Well, if it isn't Falco Lombardi. The biggest screw up in the old Gang. Wow. You were almost the most ironic guy," The man said.

"Yeah? Why's that?" Falco said, placing one of the pistols to the canine's forehead, the other to his crotch.

"Because Katherine was totally in love with you, you said you weren't interested in a relationship, so she goes out with me and you trip out with jealousy. You'll always be the guy who missed your chance," The dog said. Falco couldn't remember his name, but he didn't care to know it, either.

"Then you cheat on her, she cries on my shoulder," Falco replied, but the dog finished his sentence.

"…and you're so stupid and brash, you tell her that you could care less what her problems are, because you were stubborn and still jealous that she went out with me instead of you. I'm surprised she put herself in danger to help you out in the War. She probably did it to spite me for cheating on her, but don't worry," The dog chuckled. "She wasn't anything more than just another broad," He added.

Falco, who had just spent the last two years with Katt, before returning to StarFox, lifted his right pistol and whipped the canine across his muzzle, hard. "Don't talk about Katt Monroe. You're a scumbag and on that note, I got wind that you had your way with some poodle girl, then you and your buddies beat her senseless. That's why I'm here."

"She deserved it, Lombardi. She was just another dumb broad, just like Katt," The canine muttered, reaching his paw up to cradle his bloody muzzle, but Falco didn't let him. Lombardi pistol whipped him a second time, burying the second gun in the dog's crotch, un-cocking then re-cocking the hammer with a smirk.

Lombardi placed the barrel of the first pistol to the thug's forehead once more. "I told you not to talk about Katt anymore. Keep trying my patience. The only reason you're not dead yet is because her brother asked me to spare you, so you can sit in jail and really hate life," Falco said in a cool, relaxed tone of voice.

"So what if me and my boys had our fun with that dumb girl? There's no proof, we all used protection. The cops won't be able to link us to the crime while you'll be arrested for murder. You shot up all my boys," The dog said, only to get pistol whipped a third time. He reached a paw up to his face, but Falco hit him a fourth time for doing so.

"I didn't say you could move," Lombardi smoothly said. "Lift that paw again, see if I don't whack you again," the raptor added. "And to show just how much you know, I actually told the girl's brother that you probably wouldn't survive. After all, I know vigilante laws keep me from shooting up your pad without some sort of repercussions. I've already thought of that."

"Yeah? Then what're you doing? Procrastinating?" The man snapped.

"No, I'm putting your fate into the hands of someone who hates you a whole heck of a lot more than I do," Falco said with a chuckle. He twirled the left pistol, after pulling it back from between the traitor thug's legs, stowing it into a pocket. Falco then grabbed a piece of rope that was coiled on the table and a pair of handcuffs that were sitting on the same table, chuckling softly.

"What?"

"Handcuffs, dude?" Falco laughed. "What, do you role play cops and robbers when you're with these girls? Handcuffs, man? Really now. Put'em on," the pilot instructed, tossing the metal cuffs into the dog's lap, starting to coil the rope around him, and the backing of the chair he was sitting in.

"Are you serious?" He asked. Falco replied by whipping him with the pistol again. The canine grunted and started putting the handcuffs onto himself, growing angry. Falco wrapped the rope around the guy and his chair several times, then laced the rope through two of the links in the handcuff's short chain, before looping it around the man and his chair two more times, making the knot at the back of the seat, where it would be out of reach. The man finally asked, "What the hell are you going to do, Lombardi? Who are you handing me over to?"

Falco put the other pistol away and pulled out his cellular communicator, dialing a number. After a few rings, someone picked up on the other end. "Hey, yeah, Katt? It's Falco. Get yourself a pen and paper. I want you to take down an address on Corneria and come here tonight. I've gift wrapped a present for you. It's up to you to do whatever you want to him. You didn't have any plans tonight, didja?"

Falco listened to the person on the other end for a moment, before adding, "Great! He'll be here. Don't mind the mess, I rearranged the whole building and don't really have time to clean up after my party. Just watch where ya step, don't want you tripping over the party goers, they're all over the floor. So yeah, write this address down and go all the way to the last room in the building. I left your present gift wrapped in a chair, you'll know it when you see it, babe."

Lombardi took a moment to give her the address, then hung up the phone. "Katt Monroe is on her way to pay you a visit. We got back together, during my hiatus from StarFox, bud. Three years of dating. We're taking a little break, until we've both gotten our party-days out of our systems, but that doesn't mean she's not my girl. She once told me that she would do all sorts of nasty things to you if she ever saw you again. So you've got about an hour to pray your tail off before she gets here."

The canine suddenly started struggling against the ropes, then shouted, "You're not shooting me because you're a coward!" His words were a challenging dare, but Falco ignored them.

"I've gotta jet. I have to apologize to the poodle dude. He really wanted you to go to jail, and who knows, maybe when Katt's done with you, she'll hand you over to the cops for the way you treat women. I imagine you'll be begging to admit to every crime you can think of, just so jail can protect you from her wrath. She's pretty scorned, buddy. Toodles." Falco said the last word, just to remind the dog that the bubbly Katt Monroe was, indeed, on her way. It was something she said from time to time, and everyone who knew her, knew that.

"C'mon, you can't freakin' leave me here, after shooting up my place, take me with you, I'll admit to the cops what I did to that stupid poodle broad!" The man cried.

"Broad? The stupid poodle broad, you say? Really, I think Katt will help you cure your outlook on women," Falco chuckled. "Nah, I'll leave your fate in the paws of Katherine. I'm sure she'll be delighted to see you again," Lombardi said over a smug grin. He turned to walk out of the room, ignoring the pleas and begging that came from the gift-wrapped dog he left for Katt.

Now, to get himself a free Space Dynamics shoulder mounted Rocket Launcher.

* * *

**T**he sun dipped into the horizon and slowly sank, where the deep orange sky met the darker waterline, disappearing from view. To someone truly native to this planet, it set with practiced bravado, but to Krystal, who had never been on a tropical island before, the sunsets of Aquias were breathtaking. 

The scantly clad azure vixen was lying upon her belly on the edge of a cliff, thirty feet above StarWolf's camp. She spotted four beings sitting around a camp fire on the north beach, not sure who the fourth guy was. She couldn't tell from this angle and would have to get closer. Before she could move the fourth being suddenly stood up and walked to the water, staring out over the endless sea for a moment.

She stole a glance at Panther, then looked to the Chameleon and finally to the Lupine with the object over his eye. They were cold blooded killers with no mercy, but she sensed a sort of honor about them. It was an unspoken code, the three of them shared. Business came first, but there was a special sort of honor among thieves, so to speak. So long as she didn't interfere with their business, she sensed that they would be of little threat to her.

The fourth being turned back towards the group and for the first time, she got a good look at the person's face. Her jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. She was completely shocked.

"No," She whispered softly, "It's got to be impossible…!" She simply could not believe her eyes. She couldn't believe what she saw. She couldn't believe who was in the company of StarWolf. She was speechless. She would have to sneak in closer when she got the chance and make sure that her eyes weren't betraying her.

* * *

NEXT UP: Chapter -11- _"What the Venom Empire doesn't know…"_ … **or **"_Throwing a 'Monkey' Wrench into Andrew's Plans_" 

**A/N:** heh, sorry, just saw Rocky and Bullwinkle on TV a little while ago. Couldn't help but do a "duel chapter name" sorta deal, as a joke, to make a dumb pun. ;) I'll probably call it "Plan C", heh.

-ken


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note:_ wow, 199 hits since posting chapter 10. They're not all for chapter 10, of course, some of you like to read a chapter or two before the most current one, to get up to date on the latest and that's totally cool. I would estimate I have about 66 actual readers, who stay current with this story. I want to thank each and every one of you. We're almost to "SF: ASSAULT" the game, then I'll start a sequal that begins the day after Assault Ends, hehe. I'll be uploading the chapters of my other 3 novels around the same time I finish this one and upload the first chapter of "Reflections Of The Future." meaning "post SF:Assault" lol._

-kit

* * *

Chapter 11: "Not According To Plan"

**Falco's detritus of fallen gang members right at the doorway to the Street King's hideout made it obvious that something had happened, in downtown Corneria Capital City on the corner of** East 44th and Cedar Avenue. He had waited across the street for Katt to come and leave again, before meeting the poodle back at Space Dynamics. But by the time the night was over, Falco had gone back by the area, which was now swarming with teams of investigators, investigating things, detectives detecting things, the entire hoopla.

Katt Monroe was sitting up the block on a concrete set of steps at the corner, alone. Falco spied her, walking up to the pinkish-furred feline and sitting on the step adjacent to her, patting her knee with his palm. "How are you holding up after seeing him again?" He asked.

"Feeling a little emotional but it's therapeutic," She told Lombardi with tones that were only slightly above a whisper. "I'm glad you called me. I wouldn't give up the chance to have stomped him a few times, for the world. Did you know, he offered to admit to information if I let him go? The more he told me, the more I knew I had to do what I had to do, in there," She explained.

"You put him out of his misery, huh?" Falco said with a light chuckle. "What did he tell you?"

"What didn't he tell me?" She said, not knowing where to start. "Let's see, for one, he admitted to the mysterious deaths of several gang members, while dating me; he used me. Then of course, there was the fact that he didn't just cheat on me with other girls, he forced them into doing things with him. He was a real scumbag; I don't know how I couldn't see through his façade."

"Don't worry about it," Falco said, brushing his beak against the side of her muzzle. She smiled a bit, but she knew she lost her cool in there and tore that guy a metaphorical new tail hole. She was shaking, now, from the loss of adrenaline and didn't know what to do about it. Falco placed his feathery fingers around her arms, simply holding her for a moment. The two remained quiet, sitting a block away from the crime scene.

"What did you get out of tearing that building apart?" She finally asked.

"Well, for starters, I got a free Rocket Launcher from Space Dynamics. It's awesome, you should see it, tomorrow afternoon. But the real reason wasn't to settle a score or even to help the brother of some girl who was hurt by that slug," He told her with a frown. It was awkward, but he felt like he had to defend the justification for such an act.

"Then what was it?" Monroe asked, turning to face him, her eyes glowing in the lamp light of the orange "DO NOT WALK" sign, at the corner, that was suspended to a pole that ran power lines through the city.

"Well, I…" Falco trailed off for a moment, before continuing, "…wanted to prove to someone that StarFox isn't some bunch of jerk offs. We help people in need and risk our necks to do it. Geeze Laweeze, you'd have thought the man personally killed my whole family, the way I totaled his crib."

Katt shook her head before saying, "I appreciate your work, but you're not a gang member anymore. You're not involved in turf wars, anymore. The Space Hot Rodders want to change their image and not be a group of Hell's Angels, out to make a huge mess of things." She glanced down, keeping her cheek against Falco's own, while musing over the carnage Falco had caused earlier in the night. "No more turf wars. I couldn't believe the massive fight you'd had with Fox, dog-fighting against your own best friend, over the sands of Titania, a month after rejoining us. I know we've got to change some things about ourselves, for the better preservation of ourselves and our sanity," Monroe explained.

"You want to make the SHR gang a bunch of Sunday church members, or something?" Falco asked her. Katt shook her head softly, those pretty pink and white bangs bouncing back and forth. Falco pulled his head back to get a good look at her. "Then what are you trying to do with them?"

"We're not a bunch of teenagers anymore. We've got our established areas, we were thinking about going to wars with gangs who start problems with the public," She replied.

"Are you serious?" Falco blinked twice, reaching to pat her knee again. "Vigilantism has no place on Corneria. It wouldn't work," he told her firmly.

Katt sighed softly. "Falco, I'm talking about Gangs that smuggle contraband into the community? Stop them at the source; hit them while they're buying from some shady guy on the Sargasso Promenade. I want to pinch closed the blood veins of gang wars, cut off their fuel supplies."

"You're going to get yourself killed. That's one man's business for every one hundred men's addiction. That guarantees that you will have no less than eleven thousand people after you, at any given moment," Falco explained, adding, "Not to mention dirty cops who run the crooked side of the Drug Enforcement Agency and whatever else."

Monroe folded her arms. "It's a crooked world, Falco. It's a crooked system, sometimes. But the Space Hot Rodders are doing this to hurt Venom. They're the ones who cash in under the table on this problem. Contraband isn't everything, either," She explained.

"Well, you know that I'm back with StarFox now, right? I can't help you guys out if you're in a huge jam." Falco looked down. He felt guilty for saying that but there was nothing he could do.

"Falco, shh," She whispered, leaning to kiss the corner of his beak. "Maybe we'll get our bounty hunters license so we can do this legally. Either way, just relax. I'll be fine." She said. Falco turned his head and the two shared a short kiss.

* * *

**Krystal** opened a radio communication to GreatFox. It had to be done; she didn't know how to go about this crazy scenario. It was like a bad dream where she had no control. She rolled onto her back, on the cliff, so that she was well hidden, then engaged the staff's cloaking option.

"Peppy here, what's the latest news?" he asked, the volume control was turned down, so she had to really pay attention to hear him. She lifted the wristband computer to her ear, speaking in a whisper.

"Peppy," She hissed softly, "You won't believe this. I can't believe what's happening," She said.

On the GreatFox, Krystal's reception was poor. He was frustrated, turning knobs and such, in an attempt to lock the signal in but she was laying on a rocky cliff edge that was made out of some strange materials, which made the quality of her reception poor. Her broken words said something about being shocked over finding a fourth person in the company of StarWolf but every time she tried to tell him who it was, the quality of reception reduced itself to a burst of static.

The transmission fizzled out, and connection was lost. Back on Aquias, above the beach, Krystal groaned. She climbed to the edge once more, peering over the side. They were still on the beach, talking amongst themselves.

Her mind raced for an explanation. She knew her only choice now, was to protect StarWolf at all costs. They were in over their heads as was she. If things didn't pan out correctly, Venom was going to score an ace in the hole. She finally made her way back down the back side of the ledge to continue her hunt for Venom soldiers. She had to keep them from ever finding StarWolf.

* * *

**Panther** Caruso's gaze passed over Leon, Wolf, and stopped on Geoffrey Lionel. "It's amusing, Mister Prime Minister. I've never been paid to assassinate someone before, then had a conversation with them, after it was all over."

"I'm sure," Lionel grumbled. "So what is the point behind this farce?"

"It's quite simple," Panther noted, nodding his head to Wolf to continue the explanation.

O'Donnell sneered, but as the leader, it was his duty to be talking to the leader of Corneria. He shook his head, then started talking. "It's real simple, Geoff. Andrew paid us because you're dead. Corneria doesn't stand a chance to win a war against Venom unless someone war minded is in the driver's seat. You put John Pepper in your position, Corneria doesn't get blown up. Then after the war is over, we ransom you back to Corneria and make a double profit."

"When is the war officially over?" The Prime Minister asked.

Wolf passed the conversation off to Leon, not wanting to get into a wordy debacle over this. "The day Andrew is defeated, you go home. Until then, you're a welcome guest on Sargasso, because it's the only place that no one will recognize you, for one; two, you won't be hunted by Venom if someone does find out you're there. Venom gets all their illegal trade business through us. That and we have enough soldiers to start a small war, long enough to get you somewhere else if it comes to that."

"Why are you doing this? Why are you keeping me alive and hidden?" Asked Lionel.

"For money, you twit." Wolf smirked, having insulted the man with name calling. "I can't stand you. You're a liberalist idiot. You don't have my respect, you never will," the lupine said, his voice dropping to a murmur. He turned his head, looking off into the distance towards the cliff back, up off the beach.

"Someone's here. Get your guns, boys."

Panther took a position to better guard the trophy, while Leon and Wolf climbed up through the sands, making their way towards the large cliff-like structure that towered over the beach. They stopped where the foliage began, shooting randomly into the area, simply painting the entire scene from green to black. Within a few moments, they decimated the area at the base of the cliff. Wolf could see a body drop to the ground, the silhouette growing dark in his bionic implant. He lifted his gun, after releasing the trigger and Leon did the same.

"We got'em boss?" Powalski asked.

"We did, let's go see what we killed. Whoever they are, the body is tiny, very lithe in the waist," O'Donnell said. They walked through the burnt out bushes, kneeling down besides the body. Wolf grabbed the being by the back of their neck, lifting their head.

"Who is it?" Leon asked, putting his fists on his hips.

"You'll never believe it," O'Donnell said, shaking his head with a soft groan. "We're getting in over our heads and should have never agreed to help Panther with this. The rest of this idiot's team is going to come after us and there's going to be trouble."

"What'd you find?" Leon asked, kneeling down to see what Wolf was looking at.

A dead member of the Venom army lay on the ground, having been dispatched by both Wolf and Leon and their crossfire through the brush. It just proved one thing; Oikonni tried to screw his assassin and now he just made enemies with StarWolf by accident.

* * *

**Krystal** approached two men, who seemed to be looking for their third member. She could sense that they were fairly lost without him. She quickly wrapped the bar of her staff around the throat of one, dragging him back from his third member. After a moment, the struggling lizard went still and she dropped him to the ground. Then she quickly attacked the third man, with quick, agile staff strikes and kicks, beating him into submission the way Fox once used the staff on Sauria, over a week and a half ago.

She gave the staff one last twirl, planting the base of it into the dirt and knelt down low, sensing the approach of two others. She paused for a moment longer, then moved back into the brush, hiding in silence.

Wolf and Leon walked through the area, stopping to inspect one of the Venom army troops on the ground. Wolf smirked. "We're not alone, Chameleon," He said, pronouncing Leon's full first name.

"I can see that, Wulfarus," Leon replied, offering the same disrespect for his Boss with a light chuckle. "So who's fighting the Venom troops here, or are they trying to protect us from someone else, maybe?"

"Don't be a fool," Wolf snapped. "There are two groups here. One that's trying to get their money back from us, the other that's trying to get the Prime Minister from us. They ran into one another before either of them found us. That's our cue to get Lionel to the fighters and move."

Krystal winced from her spot in the bushes. Here they were, trying to protect the lion, even though it was to make more money in the end, and she'd just made it impossible for them to leave. Wolf, on the other hand, already saw her form in the bushes, but was biding his time. He moved closer to the brush, acting as if he was investigating the body from a different angle, when suddenly, he reached into the bushes, snatching the shadow of a form that showed up in his ocular implant.

The stealth colored vixen gasped softly, getting dragged out by her right arm. The cloaking process ended, simply making her appear to come out of the shadows and into Wolf's grip. She struggled but he had her firmly. "Let go, you!" She lifted her other arm and punched Wolf in the shoulder but he didn't even flinch.

"Aren't we feisty?" Leon hissed at her, craning his neck to glare into her face. She continued to struggle with her neck in Wolf's palm. Leon widened his large amber eye right in front of her face, just to unnerve her.

"You're all in great danger," She choked out, trying to buy leeway for herself. "You've got to get the Prime Minister somewhere safe. You must hurry," She added, her voice returning as Wolf's grip loosened slightly.

"And you are?" Wolf blinked in his good eye, glaring at her for a moment. He would have rolled his eyes but there was no reason to go there, instead choosing another means of scaring her. He simply narrowed his singular gaze, squinting at her just to intimidate her. She could sense that was his game and so she glowered back at him, baring her teeth. "Oh, that's quite nice. So why have you been following us?" He asked.

Krystal wasn't sure if he'd known for a while or if he said it to scare her for being on this island in the first place. She couldn't read it from him; his mind was on something else entirely. His eye was looking forward but his mind was elsewhere. That's when she realized that he was actually looking through the seashell bra with his bionic eye. Her right paw came up and smacked him across his face, forcing his muzzle 45 degrees to the left, forcing him to avert his gaze.

"I like her," Wolf mused, dropping her to the sand. "Don't let Panther know she's here, Leon. That's all we need is the goddess-forsaken "_lady's man_" trying to put the moves on her." He then looked back at Krystal and asked, "What's your name, last chance."

"Krystal," She muttered, reaching for her throat, sitting up on her knees.

"Last name?" Wolf demanded.

"Our race doesn't use a surname. We use titles. Until we're old enough, we simply go by our first name, as the son or daughter of our parent's and their title," She explained sourly.

"Then what's your… title?" Leon said, kneeling down to one knee, putting his large, yellow right eye in her face again.

"Krystal… of the Crimson Sun," She said, pointing to the circular tattoo on her thigh. She took a moment, then stood up once more, folding her arms and smirking. Wolf seemed amused, but business was more important, right now.

O'Donnell paused, then asked, "So Venom is after us. Fine. So, why are they doing this; do they know about Geoffrey Lionel?"

"They don't yet know you have him, no one did. Your secret is safe. The problem is, they want their money back," She told them.

"It was a bum job," Leon cried, throwing his hands up in the air. "I can't believe this, Panther was supposed to get ambushed by his own employer. What kind of idiot does Oikonni take us for?"

"Shut up, Leon," Wolf snapped. "They don't know about us, they're here for Wolf."

"Wrong," Krystal corrected. Wolf and Leon turned to stare at her again. She shrugged, then continued, "They said they're hunting for the members of StarWolf. I heard them. They know where you are, how much money you have, the only thing they don't know, is that you didn't do your job the way they wanted you, I suggest you give them back their money without a fight, since you didn't kill the Prime Minister like you were paid to do."

"No, it's ours. We're keeping The Prime Minister from leading Corneria in the upcoming war, just like Andrew wants. If Andy-freakin'-Oikonni thinks he's got a one up on me, he's wrong," Wolf mused, tapping the bottom side of his muzzle with his paw. "You realize, if this little blue chick talks to anyone, we're caught. She had no choice but to keep her mouth closed on the situation, so she has to come with us as well."

"I have no plans to 'talk' about what's going on. Prime Minister Lionel isn't my world leader," She replied, trying to stay cool.

"Mm, but I can see that you're bluffing," O'Donnell chuckled, watching her through the bionic implant. "Your heart rate increases when you lie, you glance to the left, unintentionally, then look back to your audience and don't even realize it. Your pupils dilate when you fib, and of course, the modulated frequency of your voice changes."

"…I," Krystal could hardly even stammer, she just gawked. "What's the point of keeping your secret, anyhow?" She asked.

"See that? You just admitted it," Wolf said with a chuckle. "I can't tell you were lying, I just wanted to call your bluff. Modulated Frequency? C'mon now, I'm not a rocket scientist," The lupine said, patting her shoulder a little too hard. "If you tell someone, Corneria starts a search and rescue. Andrew realizes we didn't finish the job, then the Lylat War starts with Sargasso before they even make it to Corneria. I'm keeping the Prime Minister because I know it'll rile up John Pepper enough that he'll lead Corneria into a real war, after recruiting a bunch of pilots. So you're coming with us," he told her, followed by a feral glower and growl.

"My apologies, boys," Krystal started, quickly reaching for the staff on her back. "But I have more pressing issues to attend," She continued, quickly unleashing a hard kick at Leon and a simultaneous fire blast at Wolf. Both were thrown to their backs. Before either could react, she slammed the base of the staff into the ground. A surge of energy passed through the Staff then she launched forward, up into the air, and was immediately gone.

Wolf pounded the sand with his fist. "Dammit! To the fighters, we'll tow Panther's back to the beach, do a pick up and get out of here. Hurry!" He shouted. Leon stood up, followed by the lupine. They sprinted off, in the direction of their fighters, leaving Krystal alone, high up in the tree branches.

"I don't know if I should tell Fox or the team, but I know one person, who I should warn," She said quietly, to herself. After punching a few buttons on her wrist computer, she used the built in address booklet to pull up the personal communicator of General Pepper. Fox had his wrist computer programmed with that number and now it was going to come in handy. If Wolf's intentions weren't so noble, in this situation, she would have had no problems telling everyone what was going on.

* * *

**Leon** punched the hull of his fighter. "I wonder if Venom did this. Part of me feels like it's something they would do, the other part of me really feels like they would just steal the fighter and keep the fuel in it, and try to use it against us."

"They don't have the start codes," Wolf sighed softly. "It's possible they feel these fighters are worthless, although I really have to wonder if that little girl had something to do with it. Either way, I'll have to get back to the beach and we'll contact Ruffian to bring us gas first thing in the morning, when this Island is safe. If he gets shot down, he won't be any good to help us. So, if they want a war, let's give them a war, tonight."

"Do you think Krystal will talk?" Leon mused.

"And just who is Krystal?" Came a voice from behind. Wolf and Leon whirled about, drawing their blasters, but it was Panther. Leon rolled his eyes, Wolf groaned.

"The Blue vixen from the Café," Wolf said with a smirk. "You'll have your chance to meet her, but not tonight. We've got a change of plans," He added, glancing at the Prime Minister that stood behind Panther. "We need to start a base camp, our fighters have no fuel. Our priority is to hide Geoff, here, if we want to use him for ransom. Sorry," Wolf said, directing his attention to Corneria's world leader, adding, "But you see, Old man, someone knows you're here and someone else is trying to kill us. So we're going to hide you. When we ransom you back to Corneria, I want a full pardon, or I'll finish the job I was paid to do," O'Donnell told the man.

"Fine. You have a deal. But why keep me from leading Corneria with this war upon us?"

"Because, like I was saying earlier," Wolf replied, "Corneria doesn't stand a chance with a Liberalist pansy behind the wheel. You've proven that much, in the past. Now let's move out. We've got a ton of work to do, tonight. Move your tail, lion."

"Mm, Krystal," Panther murmured softly. "Intriguing name she has, wouldn't you agree?" To his question, Geoffrey simply shrugged and the quartet begin to walk back through the darkened sandy trails, among the rows of Palmetto trees, keeping themselves in single file and absolutely quiet, from here on out.

The group made it back to the cave entrance they'd located earlier on in the afternoon and came to rest at the rocky maw. Wolf panned his bionic view around the area, then motioned for Panther to go first, followed by Geoffrey and Leon. He put his back to them, keeping guard for a moment at the cavern entrance.

Wolf's ears flickered, hearing the soft click of a flashlight coming from inside the Cave. He wondered to himself where Panther had located the gear, assuming the feline must have taken it from his emergency tool kit, in his Wolfen. Then another thought came to him; what if there were Venom troops down there, waiting for them? Wolf went for his blaster, turning to enter the cave, ready to dish out some punishment.

When he got down there, he found the cave flooded with light. But his first instinctive assumption turned out to be correct. Panther was holding a flash light and there was no one else around. The further they went into the extensive network of tunnels, the harder it became to see.

With Panther's flashlight, the contrast in the light and the darkness made it impossible for Wolf to see beyond the tool's cone of vision. The four of them kept close together, making sure that each paw print was made in silence. Panther was at the front and was the first to stop, causing all four of them to turn into a sandwich.

Wolf peered over the shoulders of the three men in front of himself, his jaw dropping at the sight. Two lizards and a Marmoset with guns, ready and waiting. Panther waved the flashlight in their faces, but their stoic expressions showed that they weren't fooling around.

Suddenly, something hit the flashlight, knocking it from Panther's paw. It clattered on the ground, casting the tunnel into darkness once more. Wolf could see again, but what came next happened so fast that he wasn't sure if he was seeing it correctly.

All he saw was the twirl of a staff and the quick jump of a lithe being. A pair of shapely legs parted, kicking their feet out in two directions, catching the nape of the neck of both lizards. The staff was brought down upon the skull of the marmoset, rendering him unconscious. She landed upon the ground, then thrust the metallic staff outwards, using the end to flip the flashlight up into the air. It hit Panther in the nose, dropping into his paw. He fumbled with the object for a moment, making sure not to drop it, then switched it back on.

By the time the flood of illumination returned to the dank tunnel, there was no sign of anybody, save for the trio of Venom soldiers, laying on the ground in silence. Panther grinned. "Love the triad of troops. Do you smell that?" He asked, inhaling deeply. "The sent of a woman. She's close."

"Give it up," Leon grunted. "You're not getting into her trousers, Caruso. She's out of your league. Now, let's go." He gave Panther a nudge in the shoulder and the four of them began forward again, stepping over the three unconscious troops.

"Who's to say she doesn't want _me_?" Panther chuckled. "Or possibly, I'm a thorn to her. I'm the variable that isn't according to her plan."

"Shut up," Wolf told them both. "I need time to think. This whole day has been not according to plan."

* * *

Next: Chapter 12! The dawn of Assault. 


	12. Short Intermission Gift

Hello, readers!

I'm going to finish the final chapter of this story, but first, I'm replaying through SF: Adventures and SF: Assault, so I can look for any additional subtleties before posting that final chapter. It won't be long, I promise!

I'm already working on REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE, which begins the day after Assault. I'm going to take my time on that one, so that I can slowly but surely ease that story into SF:Revolutions (for lack of a better name, the one that's going to come out right after the Revolution is released). I've been asked to do a story called Reflections of Fara, I've been asked to do one called Reflections of Fox, I've been asked to do a story about Falco, Katt and Panther, which I actually will pick up in the near future, and I've been asked to do a Prequil to Reflections, starting with Krystal on her homeworld.

As much as I'd like to do ALL of them, I was under the consideration of doing one about Panther Caruso. He's not such a bad guy, just caught up in the wrong job with the wrong people, and hasn't yet found the right girl, no?

As a good show of faith, for making you wait another week while I replay through SFA and SF2A, I'll show you the very-very-very-rough draft of REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE, which I jotted down a few nights ago, during a short bout with insomniea. (which means it's 100Percent subject to change. Hehe. But still.)

I've only got a few paragraphs written down, nothing extensive, but it's a show of good faith to promise I'm coming back to finish this story in only a week! I know I take forever with some of my others, but now that this story has broken 2000 hits, I thought it would be in my best interest to finish this, followed by the other 3 I'm more than half-way into. Thanks for your patience! I love you guys:)

PS: I've not spell or grammar checked this draft, it's straight up rough, even for a draft!

-kit/ken

* * *

**_Reflections of the Future._**

A Sequel

**Gone. There was no one. Her mind ached and she could sense no one** beyond Fox, Falco and Slippy. Did everyone die? Wolf, Leon, even Panther had disappeared from the scope of her extra sensory perception. Her mind's eye had been blinded by a metaphorical flash of shock and awe. The GreatFox had been slammed into the Aparoid defense shield and Peppy was presumed dead. Her heart ached so badly that she couldn't even begin to think, let alone sense any survivors.

Without GreatFox, it was going to be difficult to get back to Lylat. Their system was so far away and the Arwings only held so much fuel. However, the four of them were alive. The somber quartet suddenly jumped at the sound of audio crackle.

Krystal was the first to try and grip at what her reeling mind attempted wrapping itself around. A fact. A truth. Something that her eyes and ears cooperatively showed her heart and mind. On the dashboard, there was an image of Peppy Hare, wrapped in medical tape and gauze. Besides him stood ROB, the "Robotic Operative Buddy", for short. Her heart beat faster and at the same time, the sensor scope showed a fresh fourth blip, where Peppy's escape pod was approaching the four Arwings.

Relief emanated from Slippy, Falco and of course, from McCloud. But there was still so much loss of life. The Nobel deaths of StarWolf, for she could not sense them. When Fox began to speak next, his words held high hopes of the survival of StarWolf. He then thanked his team for being his friends and his heartfelt speech was one that put her heart to ease for the moment.

It was possible that she couldn't sense StarWolf because they'd already jumped back into the Lylat System, but in the Aparoid's homeworld system, her telepathic abilities left her feeling empty tonight. With the death of Aparoids in the billions, there were now voices and thought patterns that had all gone silent. It was a lonely sensation, to be sure.

Another few minutes went by and Slippy was the first to break the silence. "I've done some calculations," He said, crunching numbers on a wrist computer, much like the ones he'd designed in the past for Fox and Krystal. Falco owned one as well but never cared to wear it.

"We're all ears, I'm sure. Can you get us home?" Peppy asked from his spot on the escape pod.

"Actually," Slippy said, a little less boisterous than usual, due to the somber mood of the group, "You're the one getting us home, Peppy. The Escape Pod not only has enough fuel to make the jump, but its jump drive system seems undamaged. We're all going to have to pull together so that we all j-jump together, but if you hadn't survived, we'd all be sitting for a long t-t-time, out here."

"Well then," Peppy mused, somewhat proudly. "Let's get formed up. The first thing I do, when we get back to Corneria, is plan an official retirement party. Honest, I mean it this time," the hare chuckled. After saving Pepper's life by trashing an Arwing, then driving the GreatFox right into the core of the Aparoid Homeworld, Peppy had gone above and beyond the call of duty, nearly dying repeatedly.

He had lost consciousness in the concussive force of careening an entire dreadnaught class vessel into a mechanical planet, but ROB was programmed to evacuate to an Escape Pod. It didn't take a telepath to realize that Peppy was spent over this mission. He, too, had seen James on the communication readout, but wasn't able to respond. It would give him nightmares and the Goddess only knew how it would affect Fox.

Fox, as the rest of the team had noted, was nearly stoic throughout the entire final battle. He was a swirl of pent up emotions, bottled and tightly sealed. Krystal worried that he would have an emotional breakdown soon, but he seemed sure of himself. Brave wasn't the word, to be sure. Once the team brought their fighters into a diamond formation around the Escape Pod, it was time for the team to attempt the Jump back to Lylat. … …

Krystal suddenly woke up. She had that dream again, about the destruction of the Aparoid Homeworld. It'd been a week now, and the nightmares of her participation in genocide still plagued her sleep. An entire race was wiped out, it didn't matter to her that they were so very mechanical. The fact was, they had thought patterns and to an extent, they had feelings. Her body felt numb with guilt.

She pushed the blanket off of her body, lifting her paws to her face. Her fur was soaked with sweat and her neck ached. The little blue vixen's head was swimming and she attempted to reach out with her mind's eye for comfort. She closed those soft jade irises and thought of Fox.

She could actually sense him in the next room. He was asleep, in a state of Alpha. His deeply relaxed mind was an anchor to reach out for, because he'd trained himself not to slip into REM sleep, to keep the nightmares away, if only for a while. He was lying in his bed, visualizing a simplistic object, like a number or letter, to keep his thoughts from wondering.

With Corneria under massive reconstruction, StarFox found their temporary home aboard a Medical transportation ship that was orbiting Corneria. Peppy was in full recovery now, the team was given permission for a short stay until the old rabbit was released from physical therapy in three days, and Krystal had too much time on her paws.

Her thoughts turned to Sargasso. The StarWolf team would be there, if they really lived. Her soft blue bangs were half draped over her face, which lifted to gaze out the porthole above her bed. The dark void of space was illuminated with tiny white dots as far as the eye could see, and out there, somewhere, was O'Donnell's crew. She wouldn't sleep well until she knew the truth behind their fate. It caused her guilt to think that they might not have survived.

The first time she'd met the StarWolf Squadron was just before Venom launched its full blown war against Corneria. When StarFox had to pass through Sargasso to find Pigma Dengar, team StarWolf wasn't round. They had left their base to return the Prime Minister to Corneria, to uphold a promise, concerning the fact that Andrew Oikonni was defeated.

The Aparoid attack had been a double edged sword. If it wasn't for the Aparoids, Corneria would still be at war with Venom. Now both sides were at a full ceasefire and Oikonni was missing in action. Just as StarWolf had returned from their ransom negotiations on Corneria, they were thrust into a battle against StarFox, over an unwarranted attack on the Sargasso station.

Krystal could recall that day with ease, as it was the first day that arrogant fool, Panther Caruso, had been introduced to her. However, after the final battle against the Aparoids, Krystal's perception on StarWolf had changed. They were still mercenary thugs with a cold heart for business, but now they were respected as well.

Krystal's soft gaze reflected the dim dots on the otherside of the polarized glass she stood before. Her pounding heart was beginning to relax, now that she was awake. Fox had subjugated the topic earlier in the day and it was obvious his scrupulous methods of ensuring that all the Aparoids were dead by flying a double patrol was a testament to the slight Obsessive Compulsive Disorder he had for ensuring his job was done before accepting such a lofty payment from Corneria.

She could sense that he felt a tinge of guilt over the fact he was accepting a large sum for his team, when Corneria was undergoing one of the largest rebuilding efforts in Lylat History. Her mind wondered back to the present; her reverie dissipated and her eyes lowered from the window once more. She had to know if StarWolf was still alive. She considered taking an Arwing out, on her own, but leaving without waking Fox might have made him feel awkward when he found out in the morning.

The little Vix was torn. She wouldn't be able to sleep until she had ascertained as to the validity of their fate. She tried so hard to sense their existence, but on the opposite end of Lylat, she couldn't clear her mind enough to know for sure. The fact of the matter was, she had


	13. Chapter 12 rewrite FINALE

**Reflections of Krystal:** _Final Chapter (With Epilogue)_

**There was a great deal of **turmoil for three of the members of StarFox. Besides the fact that Fox McCloud was still recooperating from an injury that happened on Meteo Land, there was still a great deal going on. Krystal was still on Aquias. And of course, those two weren't the only ones who were quickly learning new lessons.

One of these lessons was one of humility, which lay with their Ace Pilot. Falco Lombardi had come to realize that he needed to relax where his temper was becoming concerned. He was quickly learning that he had to make a few life altering decisions. It started with his personality. He knew he lost his cool and now he was reeling with the metephorical blood on his hands.

Every time Fox had saved him in the past, he complained and now he was beginning to realize that he should appreciate things more. If he had Fox helping him with the Street Kings, there wouldn't have been a tremendous feeling of guilt over leaving a dozen men on the ground. Fox may have had him walk into the fray with a stunner and no one would have been killed.

Who knew if those men were capable of reform? He didn't think much of himself for reform until today; if it was possible for him, it was possible for anyone. But first thing was first. Katt Monroe. He had to figure out how he felt and decide if he was going to go back with her or stay with the team. He abandoned them for her just a few years ago and now that he was back, he had to make sure that this was what he wanted to do with his life.

He knew that spending this time with Katt, was going to make things complicated. He also knew that Slippy mentioned something about Krystal doing a mission and coming under fire with no backup. At first, he didn't want to get involved but the new girl was important to Fox and Fox would have been the first person to give Falco backup. If he wasn't out of commission, that is.

Falco placed his winged hand upon Katt's shoulder, brushing his beak against her muzzle. "Listen," He said softly. "I'm kinda torn, Katt. It's getting difficult to try and choose between you two. But Krystal is in trouble and at the same time, I can't tear myself away from you."

"You've got to choose, baby-bird. Is it going to be me and our lives together? Or her and the team?" Her words caused Falco's eyes to raise to meet her gaze with an intense sort of stare, he was falling in love again and yet he adored his team mates, even if he didn't show it all the time. And yet the raptor was falling into rapture again, just gazing into Monroe's eyes...

**M**eanwhile, on Aquais, Wolf and Panther were back to back, standing in the underground tunnel. Wolf was actually contemplating a change of business terms. He figured protecting a Prime Minister was going to be worth a lot more money than fighting for a self proclaimed Emperor of Venom.

If he was wrong about things in the past, he could be wrong about things in the future. If he wasn't so young and foolish back at 19 years old, then he might not have been on the losing team.

Regardless, the present was the most important thing right now. With his back to Panther, he could see in the dark, while Panther's flashlight was pointed in the other direction. This made it possible for them to see anyone coming, covering their blind spots. Leon was in charge of keeping the Prime Minister alive and with that little blue chick milling about, Wolf kept his senses sharp.

"We're not alone," Claimed Lionel, narrowing his eyes into the darkness that extended beyond the flashlight's cone of illumination. Wolf gave a sniff and nodded in agreement, unholstering his blaster once more. He kept his singular gaze narrowed, the butt of the pistol in his right paw, against the flat of his left palm. When the time came, he wanted to be ready for a sure, stable shot.

It was only a short distance further, before Wolf stopped the group. "We're damn close to whoever's in this cavern with us. Keep sharp; they're close and I don't want them to get the jump on us," He explained, keeping the gun level, pointed outwards.

Leon pulled out his favorite ground weapon, a laser dagger. His thumb hovered over the engage switch. Until then, it was just a worthless cylinder in his palm, ready to ignite at a moments notice. Wolf nudged Panther and whispered, "Turn out the flashlight, Caruso." Darkness swallowed the group.

Wolf spun about, slowly, searching the darkness with his bionic implant. His paw lifted, tapping a touch-sensor on the side of the implant, to change the settings. It cycled through modes until it was on the heat sensing option. There was a wavy distortion in the distance. Wolf squinted, causing the optical implant to automatically zoom in.

Wolf sneered softly. "They're running a silent generator. They're powered up, down here. If we can secure this area, than we can use it for our base of operations and call Ruffian from it," O'Donnell said quietly.

"Sit down, put your head down," Leon said to Geoffrey Lionel. The lion glowered but in the dark his expression went unnoticed. He did as told, to avoid being shot. He knew it was his only option. The large feline knelt down on the floor and tucked his head low, placing his paws over his head. Leon lowered to one knee, laser dagger at the ready. Panther and Wolf moved forward, ready to pounce, if necessary.

They rounded the corner, and immediately Wolf noticed that there were several bodies on the floor, but there were still a few guys coming into the area from a tunnel on the opposite side. Wolf opened fire, but Panther wasn't yet able to see in the room, even with his night-sensitive feline eyes; it was simply pitch dark.

Wolf aimed for a switch on the wall, breaking the closed circuit with a well placed shot. The emergency lights fluttered on, his optical implant still showing heat signatures. He reached up quickly, flipping through settings while he kept his gun paw forward.

Panther immediately joined into the fray, opening fire. There were more lizards rushing into the room from the tunnel on the other end, quickly pulling up their assault rifles. Among them were a few marmosets, one of which was holding a rocket propelled grenade launcher.

The narrow eyed ape pulled the trigger on the RPG he was carrying, waiting for a lock in the targeting rectical built into the side. He waited for a moment until the tiny metallic piezo speaker chirped that it had a lock. Panther's ears flickered, hearing the noise and he suddenly dove to the side, bowling Wolf to the ground.

The trigger was depressed and a rocket propelled grenade hissed from the tube, with a piercing 'whoosh!' sound. It passed over Wolf and Panther, heading for the rock walls behind them. The two mercenaries kept their heads low, waiting to be buried in dirt and stone, but it never happened.

Instead, there was a stark 'THUNK' sound and the rocket propelled grenade hissed back over their heads, hitting the arched top of the tunnel entrance opposite from their position. The blast was deafening but managed to seal the room from more lizards coming through.

The batter, standing behind Wolf and Panther, was none other than the staff wielding Krystal of Cerinia. She used the staff to vault over the two mercenaries who still laid upon their bellies. She then lifted the staff into the air, slamming it back down onto the ground. Using the quake upgrade built into the rod, the strike was so incredible that it knocked over every lizard in the room.

Her eyes locked onto an air vent shaft in the ceiling. She spun around quickly, reaching outwards with the staff, to knock over the first Venom soldier to attempt standing, then planted the end of the staff into the ground. A blue static discharge flashed brightly, simulating a flash-bang grenade, stunning the soldiers. The staff vertically catapulted her into the ventilation shaft, and she disappeared from sight.

Panther rubbed his eyes, quickly sitting up and taking a few shots with his blaster. Wolf was only a half of a second behind, aiming his blaster and firing quickly. With the quick locking ability of his optic patch, he was able to dispatch twice as many troops as Panther, in half the time.

Once the room was clear, Panther lowered his weapon and groused, "One day soon, I'll meet you personally; when we're face to face, Krystal, I'll make you my own."

Wolf ignored the Panther's soft spoken vow, standing up and smirking. "I still don't trust her. Either way," he added, hooking his paw under Panther's left arm, helping the feline to his feet, "I suppose we should be thankful she batted the rocket grenade back across the room. She managed to seal the other entrance into this area. That will make things easier for us."

"If we're fated to play cat and mouse, she'll be my ultimate catch," Panther said, still speaking of the blue vixen, with whom he lost the chance to meet face to face.

"It's such a shame, who cares Panther?" The voice belonged to Leon, bringing Geoff Lionel from around the corner. The two emerged from the shadows coming to stand besides Wolf and Panther.

"Quiet, Powalski. You have no idea," he mused softly. The mocha furred panther smirked, a tug drawing at the corner of his muzzle. His eyes shifted to steal a gaze at the Prime Minister then said, "I suppose we can wait to go after her, this time."

"I wouldn't allow you to, anyhow," Wolf noted, void of emotion. "We're in enough trouble because of your silly side jobs. Let's set up a base and call Ruffian. Leon, figure out the computers against the wall. Mister Prime Minister, I invite you to make yourself comfortable, or you can go through the uniform pockets on these soldiers and get out any equipment you can find."

* * *

**F**ox sat up in bed. His headache was gone and yet his shoulder still ached. Slippy was passing through in the hallway and Fox spotted him out of the corner of his eyes. McCloud was quick to call Slippy into the room and find out what was going on. 

"Well," Toad looked down, wondering if he should tell Fox where Krystal was. He didn't want to ignore his leader, who had every right to find out what was going on, but they all hoped Fox would stay in bed a few more days. "We've been buddies since grade school," Slippy started. They were the same age, and met very early in their childhood, together. "It's like this," He trailed off, looking like the cat who ate the canary.

"Did we get a job or something?" Fox asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Slippy licked his lips apprehensively then said, "Krystal is on Aquias. Falco is on Corneria, Peppy and I are helping k-k-Krystal to do a little reckon on Aquias, just a simple disturbance, nothing she can't handle."

"I see." Fox tilted his head again, then straightened his back, continuing, "As long as she doesn't come under fire, I guess."

"...Sure," Slippy gave a sheepish grin, then turned to leave the medical ward. As soon as he was out in the hall, he slapped himself in forehead, rolling his eyes. If he had eyebrows, he'd have furrowed them. Fox could find out she was in combat when he wasn't hooked up to an IV machine. Without the medication administered by this machine, he would be in recovery far longer. The only draw back to this medication was that it caused dehydration. He would have to stay wired up to the IV for another day or two, at least.

With a new agenda in mind, Slippy went for the Bridge and approached Peppy with a sigh. His eyes flitted up to the red juke box machine on the corner of the bridge, before glancing back to Hare. The frog gave a half smile, then frowned and folded his arms.

"What? Fox awake? Did he say something?" Peppy was quite empathetic.

"Something like that," said the engineer with a sheepish sort of expression. "I didn't mean to lie to him, and I suppose I didn't if you look at it from a technical stand point, but," Slippy trailed off, ending on a shrug. "I couldn't tell him about Krystal waging commando warfare against squads of Venom soldiers."

"Let alone, that she's down there with StarWolf," Peppy added.

"He's going to be pissed off when he's off bed rest," Toad muttered, walking back off the bridge. As he passed through the archway into the hall, he paused and looked over his shoulder, adding, "The tide goes out at 3:30 am, planet-side t-t-time. It comes back in at 7 and g-g-goes back out at noon, comes back at 8pm and goes b-back out again, at around 3:30 am. I suggest she leaves in the middle of the night, instead of waiting for tomorrow. It will keep Fox from putting stress on himself, when he finds out."

Peppy afforded the frog with a half smile and said, "I'll tell her."

* * *

**K**rystal balked at her wrist communicator: it had gone off at the worst possible time. She continued her attempt to slink through the air vent shaft, her tiny little frame able to wiggle through, but the staff made it difficult because of the curvy, narrow ventilation duct. It was unextended to its travel length but she was still having a hard time with it. 

Her paws were too busy to reach for the button. With a sudden instance of inspiration, she used a measure of inginuity and worked her left wrist up against the wall of the shaft, pushing the control panel on her arm against the rock until the button to answer was mashed in. "Go ahead."

"How's the mission coming?" It was the voice of Peppy Hare.

"Unexpected thrills, with a surprise at every corner," She answered sourly.

"Anything you need to tell me?" Asked Peppy on the other end.

"Everything is taken care of," She replied. After all, she'd told General Pepper personally. It was out of her paws now and the General, as well as Wolf, asked her to keep the Prime Minister's status on the down/low. She didn't understand the entire point of it, but for the sake of argument, she simply decided it was best to follow orders. Especially if Pepper was on the same page as Wolf O'Donnell.

"Return to base. Your ship will be above water within an hour, which means it will be exposed. I want you in it and back here as soon as you can take off," Peppy told her over the communicator radio. "How many Venom troops are left?"

"A few," She said, thoughtfully. If they were after StarWolf, she might not see anymore action for the rest of the night. However, if someone spotted her, or her fighter, she'd not have quite as easy of an extraction process. She placed her paws on either side of the cavernous walls, pulling her body another few inches through the tiny tunnel. "I'll try to avoid any opposition if possible," She assured, then closed the communication by brushing her nose against the communicator's control panel.

Another seven or eight feet and she would be free. Above her, she could see stars and the smell of fresh air teased at her senses. She forced the shaft of her weapon between her body and the tunnel wall, forcing it up, until the end was outside. She'd have to toss it upwards, then climb the rest of the way up and retrieve it.

Suddenly, something reached out and snatched the end of it. She closed her paws around the base and felt herself being lifted from the vent shaft by whoever was pulling on the top of her staff. Next thing she knew, she was nose to nose with Camen and the remainder of the lizard troops. 9 of them total; she knew she was immediately out numbered.

"I won't be any trouble, I was just leaving," She explained with a joking air.

"You won't be any trouble, you were just dying," said Camen. At his words, all 9 soldiers leveled a gun barrel at her, causing her to freeze. The best she could do was to force a lump to be swallowed in her throat, causing a gulping sound to emanate from her.

* * *

_We now bring you a quick commercial break! Yeah, I'm interjecting a convoluted 'Author's Note' in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning or end... just to add suspense for the mid-chapter cliffhanger. Exciting huh?_

I'm going to be doing a sequel to this story! It'll be a two part story, that begins with Krystal and Fox's future possible romance, an indepth look at Oikonni engineered bio-weapons and ends in the future, when we learn what happens in the plot of the next StarFox title... unless I get carried away with it. Remember, you guys email me with things and I figure out where to change the story. That won't change :)

I'm also putting up chapters of my other stories, today. I'm working on Nothing Passed Tomorrow, The Curse, the Sequel to this story and Similar Paths Taken!

I'm actually only doing this commercial/advertisement bit to build suspense. In all the old 80's cartoons, they always cut to a commercial right as He-man or Lion-O was about to fall off a cliff, just as Duke was about to get thrown into a pit of fire or just as Optimus Prime was about to get turned into scrap metal. It's old school cliffhanger goodness. This is the last chapter, I can't go around putting in any more cliff hangers, by stopping and finishing the story in a future chapter! This is it, yo! All right, we now return to Reflections of Krystal. And remember to buy LOG from BLAMO!

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(LOG: Ren and Stimpy cartoon)

* * *

**K**rystal couldn't slam the end of the staff into the ground or use it to activate one of her defensive counter measures like the blue shielding. Her best bet was to either fire off a blaster shot or use the freeze blast, but with someone holding her vertical by the fulcrum, she had little chance to hurt anyone and they only needed to squeeze a trigger. Finally, she blinked. 

Camen lifted his hand, causing everyone to ready their blasters. That's when she let go of the staff. She reached her free paw into her holster, and quickly whipped off a shot as she plummeted back into the ventilation hole in the dirt that led back into the shaft and ultimately down to the tunnel beneath the ground. The blaster, still on stun, caught Camen in his forehead, knocking him back.

Unconscious again, he was flat on his butt almost instantly. Meanwhile, Krystal dropped back into the vent shaft, putting her feet and paws out, to attempt stopping herself from dropping all the way to the bottom. She inadvertantly released her blaster, which disappeared into the darkness below her. She could hear it bounce off the tinny walls of the duct for another moment until silence resumed.

When Camen took a shot in the forehead, the staff was dropped in, which hit her in the shoulder, causing her to wince. Krystal secured the staff once more, wondering if she could use it to blast the ice mechanism upwards but they were likely to shoot into the shaft, after her.

The fact that they didn't shoot down the tunnel after her, made her wonder if they assumed she fell all the way to the bottom. It was a likely possibility, having heard her gun tumble down. She activated the Staff's camouflage mechanism, then began to climb upwards again. When she was nearly to the top, she lifted the staff upwards again, slowly.

Once it was free of the hole, she turned it horizontal in her paw, resting it on either side of the tunnel's entrance. She stole a glance at the feet all around her position, then boosted herself upwards. Once she erupted from the vent hole in the ground, she kicked her legs outwards, her right leg forward, her left leg behind herself. Both of her feet connected with someone's chest on either side. She put all her strength into her legs to make the connection really stick.

The two soldiers were light weight lizards, getting thrown back and landing on the ground. She still held the staff, lifting it quickly and bring it down as hard as she could with the super-quake feature in use. It slammed upon the ground, shaking the other 7 men from their feet. She quickly rolled forward, stashing the pole back into her belt, causing it to un-extend.

The lithe blue vixen lifted her right leg so that her foot came in contact with a kneeling lizard's snout, throwing him to the ground. Another Venom soldier tried to sweep her feet about from beneath her but she leapt over his attempt. Coming back down, she snapped her right leg up and back down, striking him across the side of his forehead, knocking him back as well. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw several other soldiers trying to sit up now.

She had little choice but to run, now. Several lizards were sitting up, in a circle around her, all at once. She pulled the staff back out of the backside of her belt, spun around hard, using the tip to catch every single venom soldier across his face, knocking them all back down then she jumped over one of them, heading towards the ship. After diving over one of them, she planted her paws into the ground, breaking into a ground roll.

Coming out of the roll, she began to sprint into the trees, dodging gunfire behind her. She reached the staff back over her shoulder, shoving it into her belt. Lethal shots ripped through the air, lashing through the foliage all about her. As she ran, her bushy blue tail whipped back and forth, to provide her with a graceful balance to help her in her mad dash for safety.

Her perusers were running to catch up, but she'd already had a head start. Blaster shots lanced out, disappearing through the trees up ahead of her. She suddenly dove forward. Something she could sense, told her to drop to the ground. A gunshot that was meant for the back of her head, passed harmlessly over her. She quickly activated the camouflage on the staff once more, staying absolutely still.

The men ran through the area. One of them stepped right on her paw as they ran through the area, causing her to wince and bite her lower lip to keep from crying out. Another of the 7 soldiers stepped on her left leg then her right shoulder blade, stumbling slightly but continuing on with his group.

Once they were all gone, she slowly picked herself up and whined softly in pain. "That wasn't very nice," She mused as quietly as she could. She shook it off, made sure that nothing was broken, then sighed. "Just bruises to my body and ego, you're fine Krystal," She reassured herself, then picked the staff up from the ground and dusted herself off.

She continued on, towards the fighter, stopping by the spot where she stashed her gear first. She snatched the briefcase out of the remains of the metallic chassis she'd hidden it in, then scurried off. The Arwing was half uncovered, waves lapping at the backside of it. She carried the briefcase above her head, wading through the waist-deep water.

The Arwing was slimy from the sea nettles that clung to the fuselage, prompting her to toss the case atop of the canopy and use her staff to freeze the slimy creatures. Once they were solidified, she used them to climb up the side of the hull and grabbed the briefcase, opening the cockpit.

She stashed her belongings behind the seat and wiggled out of her wet clothes, sinking down into the seat. She didn't want to get the controls wet so she pulled the briefcase back out to get her dry clothes. It was a tight fit, but she managed to change her attire in the pilot's seat, re stashing the staff and her case back behind the seat. No sooner did she finish changing, the remaining 7 soldiers broke out of the brush, running across the beach.

"Not good!" She exclaimed, following a curse in the natural Cerinia old tongue. It wasn't a language that was used anymore, but everyone had to learn it in school. With her race and their natural telepathic ability, it was rare anyone ever spoke, unless it was to a pet, a child or to sing.

She hit a button that released the canopy mechanism and reached up to pull it shut manually, because it was faster. Just as she secured the glass cover, a blaster shot ricochet off the canopy, causing her to jerk her paw back, startled. She blinked, shaking her head, then reached for the controls, booting the computer.

"Warning! Exhaust manifold restricted. Please remove any objects from the exhaust booster before starting engines; Thank you!" The computer voice was feminine and cheery. It was quite different than the monotone computer voices one might have expected.

The soldiers rushed down the beach, splashing into the water, heading for her fighter. She tried using the blasters, but the engine had to be started first; the alternator was the only thing that provided enough power to fire the forward cannon. She mashed down the start button again but the computer's stupid warning replied instead of the engines.

"It's water! It's not blocked, just fire!" She shouted, but the computer simply repeated its message, uncomprehendingly. "Gah, if I could change the settings, I could bypass the safety protocol with Slippy's help, but there's no time," She quipped. One of the soldiers paused on the beach, kneeling down to one knee and shouldered a rocket propelled grenade.

Krystal tried setting the shields but with the engines not running, anything that consumed a great deal of power was beyond the fighter's ability. "Dammit!" She shouted, trying again. The computer chirped in protest.

Her pupils dialated, focusing on the massive barrel of the explosive weapon. She didn't have enough time to try and bat at this one, her staff was behind the seat and the canopy was shut. She was sitting off balance and with the press of a trigger, the unprotected Arwing would fall victim to a concussive blast that would leave her vulnerable or worse.

It was all slow motion. Her eyes flitted and she saw the ears flicker on one of the mammal types that were with the Venom troops. That meant the cannon was locked and he was about to fire, because the cannon made a chirping sound when it was locked onto a target. The trooper's finger was pressed in on the trigger, about to release it, which would cause the gun to fire.

Her heart stopped. Her breath caught in the back of her throat. Her pupils widened a bit more, and at the back of her startled mind, there was a new presence. She wasn't even paying attention to the addition on the battlefield. Was it StarWolf to come and save her? She was a deer, frozen in the headlights of a high speed car.

The eruption made her heart sink but she couldn't even blink. There was a bright flash and her pupils shrunk to tiny pinholes. Part of her, on some subconscious level, wondered if it would hurt when the fireball engulfed her.

To her complete confusion, the blast didn't envelop her. It was actually on the beach and in her state of shock, her depth perception was less than focused. The beach erupted in a burst of flames and she almost felt her heart start beating again. Her muzzle lifted, to shield her eyes from the flash and that's when she caught a glimpse of Falco Lombardi's Arwing swooping down and pulling back up, like a dive bomber.

The cold hard reality was, StarWolf didn't care about her situation. They were busy with their own mission, keeping the Prime Minister intact for money. No, her savior was one of her team members. It was like a strike of lightning. All around her was danger and death but in that moment, inside that glow, she felt alive and safe. She felt secure. She felt like she had a family and a team, but those feelings would come to the front of her mind later, when she had time to think about it.

For this moment, she was sitting inside of a pillar of light, surrounded by fire and brimstone, so to speak. The beach lit up like a Roman Candle and she knew she wouldn't die, today. Lombardi came back, swooping around and using his blasters to take out men that continued on their course towards Krystal's Arwing.

One of the freaky lizards clamored up the side of her fighter, trying to pull himself up over the canopy. A flash of light startled her again, and the image of the soldier disappeared. Her reeling mind worked to make heads or tails of the situation. She quickly realized that the skillful raptor actually shot a man off of her fighter, without actually hitting her Arwing.

By now, the tide had receded just enough that her computer reported that the blockage over her booster was now clear. She pushed the throttle stick into the maximum position then rebooted the computer and fired the engines. The Arwing bucked forward, shuttering under the pressure. The G-diffuser was still going through a boot-sequence, but not quickly enough; she was pinned to the seat from the burst of speed.

Krystal pulled back hard on the rowing-machine style flight stick that had buttons attached at either end. The bottom of the Arwing brushed against the tops of the Palmetto trees as her fighter ascended further into the sky.

"You all right? They were about to light up your life, Krystal," Falco chuckled. "I bet you were scared senseless," he added over soft laughter. It was a reassuring sound. She glanced back, behind herself. The Island grew smaller as she climbed and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Scared _senseless_? I suppose you could say that. I would have chosen another word. Either way; thank you, Falco. I thought I was a goner," admitted the vixen.

"StarFox sees that kind of action all the time, are you all right?" Falco asked, half wondering if she was going to quit as soon as they got back to the GreatFox.

"Never better!" She said, half laughing in joy at the fact she was alive. "I think this is the most excitement I've had in ages! No, I sense what you're thinking; I would love nothing more than to stay part of this team!" She was, in fact, boisterous in her reply.

"Good to hear it!" Falco chuckled in return. They could share life-altering stories later. They both had one today, and it was going to be a day neither would ever forget. The two Arwings broke through the atmosphere and headed home. Now, to see about that bubble bath and 'Chocolate'.

* * *

**K**rystal shut her eyes, laying in the bath tub. Hot water and fluffy white bubbles covered everything but her head. Her right paw rested along the rim of the tub with a fork between her fingers. Sitting adjacent to her paw on the tub's edge, was a small plate full of chocolate cake crumbs. 

Her eyes were shut and her thoughts were wondering. She had faught on instinct in the last few days in a way she'd never thought possible. Her legs ached, her abs ached, her back and shoulders ached. With all the excitement in the last few days, she was now sure of two things. She wanted this team to be her family and she was head over heels in love with Fox McCloud.

The thoughts of Cerinia were still at the back of her mind. The last time she had relaxed in the hot springs of the healing planes near her home rushed back in a flood of memories. Her father approached her as she lay in those springs, standing besides an older woman, who hobbled with the aid of a walking stick.

In this memory, she could almost hear her father's words being spoken, _"Good morning, Krys. How are you today? Really? That's wonderful! It's your 16th birthday and as you know, every 16 year old girl gets to speak to the Oricle personally."_

_She thanked her father, who leaned to kiss her forehead, then left, leaving the soaking vixen in the presence of the all mighty Oricle. Her eyes sparkled in curiosity as the little old lady came to sit down besides Krystal who was laying in the healing springs, which was part of her birthday present._

_"Have you thought about what you want to do with your life?" Asked the little old woman. Krystal nodded slowly. She wanted to become a senator like her parents but only to make them proud. She didn't have any true personal aspirations for the future at this time._

_The little old lady nudged Krystal in her shoulder with the tip of her walking cane. "I'm going to tell you something that you must keep secret until the day you truly understand it. And when you think you finally understand it, don't speak upon it. Simply contemplate. You'll know when you're ready to talk about this day. I won't be here but you will be."_

_"You've been around for longer than anyone alive, Oricle, how can you think that you won't be around?" Krystal asked, her brows furrowed and eyes somewhat widened._

_"Oh child," Said the elderly woman to the 16 year old Vixen. "I fear I may already know my fate along with many others," She explained. "As you know, I've stopped doing future fortunes for 16 year olds. I know you were surprised when I accepted the request for your 16th birthday but there's a reason for it."_

_"Oh?" Krystal sat up in the hot spring, the water at her shoulder level. Her eyes were like that of a child, watching the mystical oricle with a young, naïve gaze. "Why would you accept a normal invitation from my family for my fortune, if you've retired from doing it?"_

_"Because, child," Said the old woman, kneeling down besides Krystal to speak with a private tone. "Your future is worth telling. The others don't have futures, but this is secret. It would do you no good to know why others don't have a future... It's a secret for Father Time, himself. Your future will be the greatest adventure ever."_

_"An adventure? But what about my aspirations of becoming a senator?" asked the young Vixen, tilting her head._

_"Those aspirations are not fated in the stars, little Krystal." The Oricle reached into a tube that was tied down to her pack, she had unshouldered the pack to get the tube off of it, and quickly opened the top. She flipped the tube over, causing a metallic staff to slide out. It was beautiful. Adorned with jewels at each end and glyphs that reached from one end to the other. Krystal's eyes widened. "Krystal of the Cardnal Sun, I want you to have this weapon staff. It's no ordinary weapon staff. It's been blessed by the fates to allow the weilder the ability to achieve important tasks in the future."_

_Krystal reached her paws out of the Healing Springs, taking the staff into her paws. It extended once she touched it, becoming a great deal longer. The staff's sudden will to extend caused her to jump, becoming immediately alert. "Whoa!"_

_"Now I will tell you a piece of your future," the old lady began. "You will bare children. The first child you bare will be a son. He will have orangish red fur with headfur (hair) the color of your own hair. A matching blue-furred, star-shapped birthmark will surround one eye and you will name him after it."_

_Krystal listened intently, as if hanging from every word the elder lady spoke. The oricle continued, saying, "Once he is of age, a tradgity will occure in his life. He will avenge that travesty and become a man of great honor. You must be there for him your entire life and beyond. Your great adventure will lead you to lands beyond Cerinia and you will be forced to learn how to forgive and forget about this world in your future."_

_"Forget about Cerinia, how could I ever do that?" Krystal balked, then covered her mouth with a free paw, remembering to be respectful._

_"Oh little Krystal," The elder woman said sympathetically. "You have such a hard journey ahead. I promise it will become the best time of your life but I promise you have a great set of challenges ahead of you. Becoming a mother is the least of your worries at this point. For that to happen, you must survive many great challenges first."_

_"Can you tell me about my future mate?" She asked politely._

_"He will be many things," the Oricle told Krystal. "He will be a hero and saviour of many worlds and yet the harbinger of doom to many others. This is not something he wants for himself. All he wishes in life is to avenge his unfortunate losses and selflessly do his best for them. At the same time, he's a selfish leader who only wants what is best for his people at the expense of any who oppose him. He will be known as a great warrior, but he will be an even greater father. His sense of honor and pride is strong but his ability to stand on the battlefield will be legendary. He will mature as a man in your eyes and his ability to empathize and appreciate will become an attractive quality to you._

_"You will be his friend and ally first but will eventually lose all control in his presence. Whatever you feel for him, he feels 3 fold stronger towards you. He is a private man, when it comes to intimacy. He is outgoing in public and yet he dislikes being the center of attention on a scale that is larger than his ego. His heart is large and he'll often break his personal policy to make a decision with his heart. This will be his greatest downfall and his greatest power at times. He will be weak in the knees around you and when you move to make him yours, he will cling to you with a love that is unmatched or unrivled by any Romantic story you've ever known. Your life will become a romantic epic all its own when the time is right. It will be an epic that will be sung about by minstrils in the most distant of worlds, one day. But always remember, you must not allow your heart to disappear in the clouds. Always stay grounded, little one. That is your fate; your fortune."_

Krystal's eyes opened and the short dream disappeared. Her eyes wondered to the bathroom doorway. The door was open and held a view to the living room of her personal quarters. She could see the staff resting in a glass case in the middle of the room. A smile touched her lips as she recalled the woman who bestowed it upon her. She felt greatful, deep in her heart. Everything was coming true. It was obvious, more so now than ever, that Fox was to be her future mate.

She couldn't quite tell him everything yet, but that was all right. The time would come. She knew that her life challenges would come before her life desires. Her mind and her life had to come before her heart. But the world on a silver platter waited for those with the virtue of patience. For now, love could wait and the future could wait. She was still young. She had her entire life ahead of her.

* * *

**_EPILOGUE_...**

**S**everal months had passed. The team was training for the upcoming possibility of confrontation against Venom and every day, it looked more and more like war was about to become reality. StarFox found themselves discluded from the battle fleet, due to a loophole in Cornerian military planning.

Fox was pissed off, wanting to be a part of the entire situation, but was ordered to stay clear. Pepper was sure that Corneria could handle itself this time and wanted Fox to keep his team of pilots safe. Falco could handle himself but Slippy and Krystal were only as good as the typical fighter pilot airman and didn't have the military combat training that Pepper's pilots had.

A group of four was no match for an armada, with only two ace pilots on the squadron, as far as Pepper was concerned. Peppy was retired and this was something he felt Corneria could handle.

It was in the news, in the tabloids, everywhere. Andrew Oikonni was claiming to demand Corneria's complete surrender. There was no reason for the war, other than a family oriented vengeance after the death of his father's brother, Andross. From what Corneria could see, there was no military activity on other planets, just a fleet that was closing in on Fortuna, heading for Corneria.

Pepper felt that Fortuna was possibly a point from which young Oikonni wished to launch an assault against Corneria. There was no way Pepper was going to let that happen, and so he ordered for his fleet to gather in the space between Corneria and Fortuna.

What Pepper didn't know yet, was that Oikonni already had a base on Fortuna. High noon, Corneria Capitol time, Oikonni's battle armada came under siege by Corneria's primary battle fleet. The two massive space battalions clashed like the massive titans that they were.

Oikonni's ship was at the center, slipping back towards the back end of the battle. He would descend to Fortuna if necessary. So far, there was no sign of mercenary groups; just Cornerian military fighters filled the skies.

"I want to make this quick. If we can give them the full brunt of our forces," Andrew said to his General, "then we can overwhelm them. If they put up more of a fight than we anticipate, we'll use our stealth squadron, so keep them cloaked and have them in the middle of the battlefield. Do not allow them to fire until I give the command, personally!" Said the new Emperor. The view screen's occupant nodded, then bowed out; the screen went dark.

The engagement began. Emperor Oikonni demanded to show the dogs of Corneria's war-machine no quarter; he wanted to show the true power of the Oikonni Emperor. Pepper, on the other hand, wanted to bring a quick, short end to Andy Oikonni's rule. The boy was a foolish, brash young boy with no experience. The only thing that could come from him was bad news.

The war lasted nearly forty-five minutes before Corneria's forces were ambushed by the stealth fighter squadrons. They uncloaked and opened fire with a barrage of missiles.

That's all Fox could take. He'd been watching the war, live, from a news cast. His entire team was suited up and ready to battle and yet they'd been forbidden. But now Emperor Oikonni had changed the tide of the battle with dirty tricks.

McCloud lifted his paw, pointing at the battle on the main viewscreen and said, "Peppy, set a course and use the jump gate. I want to arrive as close to the battle as possible, I don't care what Pepper asked, let's get ready to protect our home."

Slippy stood up from his seat, walking between the two computer stations in front of the view screen. Krystal sat on Fox's left hand side, Falco on the right, with his feet crossed at the ankles. He looked bored, wondering why they haven't gone against orders and joined the war hours ago.

The green circular field opened for them and GreatFox began to sink into it. On the other side, they emerged above Corneria, at the edge of the Meteo asteroid belt. The GreatFox began to pick up speed, heading towards the battle.

"Something's coming through the field... StarFox? Command, it's the Great Fox!" One of the men reported, mirrored by another report over top the first.

"Fox? You came..!" Pepper sounded half relieved. With the stealth squadron, it had been quite a turn for the worst. Andrew's Capital Ships were beginning to cross the line and Corneria's defenses were surfacing; their offensive plan was stalled out.

On board the GreatFox, Team StarFox opened a channel to Pepper, demanding orders and permission to launch. To his surprise and relief, Pepper's reluctance had disappeared and he offered StarFox the command to launch. "Ah, leave these losers to the pros," Slippy commented, waving at the Venom army on the main view screen with a dismissive air.

It didn't take more than a moment for Fox to finish the communication and get his team on their feet. They ran down the hallway, heading for the hanger bay. Krystal was to Fox's right, running in what seemed like perfect rythem with the rest of her new team. All this training, she was finally ready to show her colors.

Peppy's voice could be heard over the loud speaker in the Hanger, his voice echoing off the metallic walls of the flight deck. Fox bound feet-first into his fighter, punching the buttons to begin the boot sequence. Krystal and Falco reached their fighters, making a graceful near-cartwheel into the cockpit of their fighters.

Slippy sorta dove into his fighter, but it didn't take too long for him to over-right himself and the team immediately closed their canopies. Peppy's words of caution was transferred into the audio receiver built into their craft and Rob activated the main bay doors, from his computer terminal on the bridge.

Almost immediately, Fox and his team punched their afterburners, using the new Flight deck launching system to catapult their fighters into the inky void of space. Up ahead there were tiny dots that labeled each explosion on the battlefield up ahead.

Almost immediately, Slippy, giddy as ever, decided to head into a dogfight chase. No sooner did he break formation, someone dropped onto his tail. Krystal cried out for him to stay with the team and made a remark over his premature actions, while Falco made some snide comment about how typical it was for Toad to jump into the fray too soon.

On the other side of the field, a report was going through the chain of command, until Oikonni gave the command. "StarFox, eh? Work'em over!" He demanded, wanting to use his men to force the StarFox Mercenary squadron away from the battle, guiding them to the right hand side, so that the main battle could continue against Corneria. If he could distract them, they would be put off course.

McCloud's mercenary squadron wasn't so ready to fall into the course Oikonni desired. They were pushed to the right, but cut a swath through the line of Capital Ships in doing so. They doubled back to the left, getting back on course, but not before cutting another line, the shape of a "V" through a second line of Cap-ships.

From Oikonni's commant center, he could see how annoying StarFox could be. They were ever-vigilant against the Stealth fighters, opening fire just as the ships appeared after being warned by the little blue vixen who was rumored to have those stupid head abilities. The Emperor was growing upset; his patience was wearing thin.

"They're undefeatable demons!" One of the Capital Ship Captains said on a privately encoded message channel to the Emperor. His reply was on a public channel, exclaiming that StarFox couldn't possibly be a group of demons. Finally, he demanded to handle them himself and fell back towards Fortuna.

* * *

**Hours later**... 

**W**olf O'Donnell smirked. "It looks as though Emperor Andy was defeated; he's now missing in action. It's go time." His gaze cut to the Prime Minister, who was no longer wearing clothes that looked like the threads of a world leader. "The problem is, there's a rumor on the news that StarFox didn't take him out. Some other freaky being intervened. Let's go, I don't want to leave Sargasso undefended for too long."

"It's far from undefended," Leon said, hooking a thumb at Ruffian. "With the transporter pods, we can teleport our men in from every shady sector of back-water Lylat."

"I suppose you're right. It looks like GreatFox is moving towards Katina and the battle group of Corneria is moving towards Fortuna. Pepper's flagship has moved back towards Corneria, I want to drop off Geoffrey Lionel and get paid as quickly as possible, let's keep it on the quiet side," Wolf replied. It was the long explanations that he hated to deliver.

"You're going to leave Sargasso without a pilot to protect it?" Lionel asked, a bit surprised.

"We'll be back in a few hours, if not sooner. C'mon old man, I have ransom money to collect. Let's get you home before these robotic things that supposedly took Andrew out, try and come for someone else. Move."

The three fighters left from Sargasso, with the Prime Minister of Corneria. With StarFox moving towards Katina for some reason, Wolf felt leaving Sargasso temporarily without air defense would be all right. If anyone attacked, Ruffian would send out a distress signal and Wolf's team would head back to join the fray.

_If only they all knew what they were about to get into..._

_

* * *

_

**Down on Fortuna**, the remains of Andrew Oikonni's ship was smoldering on the ground. A massive hole allowed sunlight to filter into the battle bridge, where he was unconcious in his seat. Wires and sensory gadgets ran to his arms and the large visor over his head that sent his hand and head actions to the machine. These machines made it possible for him to swat at his enemies with his hands but it seems as though it wasn't good enough. He wasn't even sure what was used against him, but whatever it was, he lost.

The afternoon sun passed over his ship, causing sunlight to filter in through the hole, passing over his face. His eyes squinted open at the overly bright light in his face. He lifted his left arm, still attached to all the wires that ran up to the ceiling, covering his face from the sunlight. A groan passed his lips and his eyes lowered disdainfully.

Suddenly the light was blocked out and his body was cast into the shadow of another being. A metallic scythe reached in through the hole, widening it with ease. The metallic bot began to climb in through the hole, lifting a second pair of metallic blades as it approached Andrew. Oikonni struggled in his chair, reaching for the seatbelt release.

The machine approached, ready to impale him with the large metallic arms and he raised his arms, defensively, over his face. A loud discharge rang out, ripping through the Aparoid from behind. It quivered for a moment, overcome by death throws, then flopped to the ground, sliding down the diagonal deck, from the way the ship had crashed. It slammed against the back wall void of any motion.

Another shadow had shielded his eyes from the sun but this person stepped in through the hole, holding a blaster in their palm. Andrew swallowed in fear, unable to ascertain to the person's identity. The blaster was lifted once more, and Andrew couldn't tell anything other than it was pointed in his direction.

"Wait, please!" Young Oikonni said, "I'm the Emperor of Venom, don't shoot!" Suddenly the gun fired. Its blast passed over Andrew, hitting the machine behind him, to ensure that it was dead. As the sillohette of the man came closer, Andrew was finally able to make out details.

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened. He finally found his voice and whispered, "Uncle Andross...!"

* * *

THE END... 

..._For now_


	14. Credits and shoutouts

THIS IS NOT A CHAPTER. I put this up because I REWROTE THE LAST CHAPTER and added some parts that ties in with the sequel. so please hit your bACK KEY and read it! Thanks!

This is a credits/shoutouts 'please go on to the sequel" page that should help tie it together. Yes, the two new parts in the last chapter are neat new add ons like the special edition of a DVD! lolol.

Afterword by the Author...

Okay so as you all probably now know,** I REWROTE THE LAST CHAPTER**, like I promised...a million years ago. I'm up to chapter 7, now, on the Sequel and will be posting it shortly after I reupdate THIS story.

**As you can see, GO BACK ONE CHAPTER RIGHT NOW, because I JUST redid the last chapter**. THIS is NOT a chapter, it's a credits and shoutout page... honest, go look and see for yourself... i just went back to the last chapter before this update right here, and put in a new blurb about krystal AND andrew, AND re-wrote some parts... then i just found some spelling errors like "Faught" instead of "Fought" and "oricle" instead of "oracle" so i'll fix that too. oops... **so yeah, go hit that back button and read the last chapter**. I did it at work cause i felt like it :D **I added some parts because it ties it into the sequel **i'm writing.

Ooo, so what happened? Did Andrew cry for his uncle, like he does everytime he gets his butt handed to him? Or is he really looking at his Uncle Andross? Has someone come to dispatch him or rescue him? How will this have any meaning in this next game? Or the sequel that follows ASSAULT, for that matter? Thank you for reading! I love you guys:)

With only 12 chapters of a story, I've broken 3000 hits. I was amazed. I started the story in august and by the end of the month had over a thousand. I'm floored. I appreciate you guys!I appreciate that support and reader lovemore than you'll ever know. Every day, now that the story has long since finished, I see at least 6 to 10 people read through it. This story started as a 'for fun' chapter or two of a short story and grew into a short novel because you guys continued to give feedback and reader-love, so I continued with the story for you guys. I appreciate all the feedback and all the cool reviews. I don't mind any scathing reviews, it helps me shape things up for you guys :) ...For example, I know some people LIKE Krystal being 16 and some people LIKE her being about 20. That's why I came up with my little thing in this story about how Cerinia took longer to revolve around the sun than Corneria would take... thus making her 16 on her doomed homeworld but mathmatically she's almost 21 on Corneria. That way EVERYONE is happey!

_I've had so much fun writing this and the sequel, it's been an intense and passionate adventure for me!_

_THANK YOU FOR READING THIS STORY!_

_Prepare for the sequel...! I've already got it up, it's called REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE. It touches on a few important post-war things like the search and rescue of civilians and innocent casualties. It touches on Panther's continuation of his vow to attempt to woo Krystal. It touches on The Oikonni Empire's history of using Bio-weapons (Remember SF64? Sol, Aquais and Titania's end bosses were all bio-organic-weapons created by Andross. Freakish creatures that were massive and deadly. We'll see more of that in the next story) and of course... ROMANCE! Yes, I'll finally get Fox and Krystal alone enough for him to open up around her! Also, we'll find out more about Krystal's past and what the oricle told her! _

_What great challenges await our favorite blue vixen? Was being trapped in a glass prison her challenge? Was surviving the Aparoids her challenge? Is getting Fox to open his heart to her a challenge? Possibly, but her greatest challenge is still ahead! _

Kenneth Herbert Weaver Junior

"Kit Karamak"

**Shout-outs**: Silver Meta Dragon, Fenrir Hellfyre, Destructor: Thank you guys for following this story! You guys are great writers, also, and I appreciate you all following this and other stories, so very close! I appreciate that! THANK YOU

JediAnn Solo, Whinnie, Tobias, Inusgrl90, Virandi, Fox MC's Editor, Foxmagik and Shadow Chaotic Soulright: Thank you for reading my story. I appreciated your input and everything you've said, and how this story was able to make you feel.

Ichibod Ricct: Mah man, I'm glad you like my writing, I'll stretch out The Curse as long as I can for ya. XD

For those of you who've emailed and IMed me, Bassmas, Itom, Silver, Banethe, JDFancy, and anyone I may have forgotten to mention, I AM GLAD and I totally appreciate that you've taken an interest in my story! If I didn't mention you, I'm sorry! Let me know and I will! XD

THE ever lovin' END

read the sequel! Woo!


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